Vashon, WA
Vashon wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Vashon at the 24th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 7,854 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Vashon's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 24th percentile nationally.
Vashon's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Vashon: 78.9% of its 7,854 buildings, versus 15.7% Indirect and 5.4% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap. At 7,854 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Vashon ranks
Compare Vashon's two percentiles: 40th within Washington, only 24th nationally — a gap of 15 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Vashon ranks 23,905 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,160 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 380 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Vashon and the insurance market
Vashon's moderate rating (24th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Vashon
Because Direct exposure dominates in Vashon (78.9%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Vashon's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Vashon's 23,905-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Vashon's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.