Wallula, WA
How exposed is Wallula to wildfire?
Wallula sits at the 92nd 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 95 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wallula at the 91st percentile, close to its 92nd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Wallula (82.1% of 95 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 17.9% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Wallula ranks
Wallula scores 92nd nationally and 82nd within Washington — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wallula ranks 2,599 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,293 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 112 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Wallula and the insurance market
Wallula'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.
What would actually reduce this score
Wallula's 82.1% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 95 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Wallula. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Wallula, see the exposure-zones guide.