Western Lake, TX
Western Lake, TX's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Western Lake 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 986 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 Western Lake at the 95th percentile, close to its 95th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Western Lake's 986 counted buildings, 83.4% carry Direct exposure and only 0.3% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Western Lake ranks
There's little gap between Western Lake's 95th national percentile and its 96th percentile inside Texas, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Western Lake ranks 1,458 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,037 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 80 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Western Lake'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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Western Lake (83.4%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Western Lake's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 986 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Western Lake. The exposure-zones guide covers what Western Lake's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.