Vail, CO
Vail wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Vail at the 76th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 2,182 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Vail's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 68th percentile nationally.
Vail's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Vail's buildings (64.3%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Vail ranks
Vail ranks lower within Colorado (46th percentile statewide) than its 76th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Vail ranks 7,464 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,985 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 254 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Vail
Vail's high rating (76th 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
Vail's 64.3% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Vail's 7,464-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Vail, see the exposure-zones guide.