Union Springs, AL
Union Springs, AL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Union Springs's 1,827 buildings earn a 74th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Union Springs at the 75th percentile, close to its 74th-percentile risk score.
Union Springs's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 54.4% of Union Springs's 1,827 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 45.6% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Union Springs ranks
Union Springs's 74th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 55th ranking inside Alabama does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 19 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Union Springs ranks 8,308 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,989 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 268 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Union Springs and the insurance market
Union Springs's 74th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Union Springs (54.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Union Springs's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,827 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Union Springs. The exposure-zones guide covers what Union Springs's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.