Valley Grande, AL
Valley Grande, AL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Valley Grande lands at the 62nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 2,538 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Valley Grande's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 64th percentile nationally.
Valley Grande's building exposure, zone by zone
2,538 buildings are counted in Valley Grande, and 99.5% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Valley Grande compares
Inside Alabama, Valley Grande sits at just the 30th percentile even though it scores 62nd 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, Valley Grande ranks 11,935 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,229 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 415 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Valley Grande and the insurance market
Valley Grande's 62nd-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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Valley Grande (99.5%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Valley Grande's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,538 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Valley Grande. The exposure-zones guide covers what Valley Grande's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.