Spirit Lake, ID
Spirit Lake wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Spirit Lake at the 57th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,346 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Spirit Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 54th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Spirit Lake (66.1% of 1,346 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 33.6% sit in the Direct zone.
Spirit Lake against the rest of the country
Spirit Lake's 57th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 23rd ranking inside Idaho does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 35 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Spirit Lake ranks 13,418 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,851 by building count (1 is largest). Within Idaho alone, it ranks 179 of 232 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Idaho on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Spirit Lake's elevated rating (57th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Spirit Lake
Because 66.1% of Spirit Lake's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Spirit Lake's 13,418-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Spirit Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.