Sylvania, AL
Sylvania wildfire risk explained
Sylvania sits at the 82nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,316 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Sylvania at the 86th national percentile — 4 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 88.8% of Sylvania's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 11.3% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 1,168 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Sylvania compares
Sylvania's risk sits at a similar level relative to Alabama (81st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (82nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sylvania ranks 5,692 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,986 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 110 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Sylvania and the insurance market
Sylvania's very high rating (82nd percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Sylvania's 88.8% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Sylvania's 5,692-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Sylvania, see the exposure-zones guide.