Sulphur, LA
Sulphur, LA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Sulphur lands at the 65th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 10,628 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Sulphur's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 68th percentile nationally.
Where Sulphur's buildings actually sit
Most of Sulphur's buildings (45.6% of 10,628) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 10,628 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Sulphur against the rest of the country
Sulphur's 82nd-percentile standing inside Louisiana outpaces its 65th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sulphur ranks 10,966 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,500 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 91 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 65th percentile nationally, Sulphur carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Sulphur
Even with 45.6% of Sulphur outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Sulphur's 10,966-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Sulphur, see the exposure-zones guide.