Wailua Homesteads, HI
How exposed is Wailua Homesteads to wildfire?
Wailua Homesteads sits at the 95th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 2,135 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Wailua Homesteads's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 94th percentile nationally.
Where Wailua Homesteads's buildings actually sit
56.1% of Wailua Homesteads's 2,135 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 43.9% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Wailua Homesteads compares
Inside Hawaii, Wailua Homesteads sits at just the 77th percentile even though it scores 95th 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, Wailua Homesteads ranks 1,509 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,105 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 39 of 163 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Hawaii on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Wailua Homesteads's 95th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Wailua Homesteads (56.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Wailua Homesteads's figures come from
Wailua Homesteads's 95th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Wailua Homesteads's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.