Wailua, HI
How exposed is Wailua to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Wailua at the 92nd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 967 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Wailua's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 89th percentile nationally.
Wailua's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 89.7% of Wailua's 967 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 10.3% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Wailua ranks
Wailua's 92nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 54th ranking inside Hawaii does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 38 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wailua ranks 2,546 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,169 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 77 of 163 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Hawaii on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Wailua
Wailua's 92nd-percentile, very 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.
Hardening a home in Wailua
Wailua's 89.7% 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
Wailua's 92nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Wailua, see the exposure-zones guide.