Welaka, FL
Welaka, FL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Welaka sits at the 80th 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 619 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Welaka's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 81st percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Welaka: 57.5% of its 619 buildings, versus 39.1% Indirect and 3.4% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Welaka compares
Welaka's 80th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 49th ranking inside Florida does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 32 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Welaka ranks 6,208 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,568 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 490 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Welaka and the insurance market
Welaka's 80th-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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Welaka (57.5%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Welaka's figures come from
Welaka's 80th-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 Welaka's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.