Sparks, GA
How exposed is Sparks to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Sparks at the 65th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,120 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Sparks at the 64th percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
Sparks's building exposure, zone by zone
70.5% of Sparks's 1,120 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 789 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 25.5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 4.1% are Minimal.
Where Sparks ranks
Sparks's 65th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 42nd ranking inside Georgia does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 23 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sparks ranks 11,057 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,152 by building count (1 is largest). Within Georgia alone, it ranks 390 of 669 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Georgia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Sparks's 65th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Hardening a home in Sparks
Because Direct exposure dominates in Sparks (70.5%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Sparks's figures come from
Sparks's 65th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Sparks's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.