Thomaston, AL
Thomaston wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Thomaston at the 61st national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 366 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Thomaston's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 63rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Thomaston's 366 counted buildings, 82.2% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Thomaston ranks
Inside Alabama, Thomaston sits at just the 28th percentile even though it scores 61st nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Thomaston ranks 12,405 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,935 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 429 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Thomaston's 61st-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 82.2% of Thomaston in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Thomaston's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Thomaston's 12,405-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Thomaston's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.