Watertown, FL
Watertown wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Watertown lands at the 71st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,740 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Watertown at the 72nd percentile, close to its 71st-percentile risk score.
Where Watertown's buildings actually sit
56.2% of Watertown's 1,740 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 43.8% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Watertown compares
Watertown's 71st national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 29th ranking inside Florida does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Watertown ranks 9,042 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,267 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 681 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 71st percentile nationally, Watertown carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Watertown (56.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Watertown's 9,042-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Watertown, see the exposure-zones guide.