Whetstone, AZ
Whetstone wildfire risk explained
Whetstone sits at the 99th 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 2,450 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 Whetstone at the 99th percentile, close to its 99th-percentile risk score.
Whetstone's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Whetstone: 95.4% of its 2,450 buildings, versus 4.7% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Whetstone compares
Whetstone scores 99th nationally and 92nd within Arizona — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Whetstone ranks 464 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,393 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arizona alone, it ranks 38 of 441 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arizona on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 99th percentile nationally, Whetstone carries the very 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Whetstone's 95.4% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Whetstone's 99th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Whetstone, see the exposure-zones guide.