Zachary, LA
Zachary wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Zachary lands at the 35th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 8,330 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 Zachary at the 37th percentile, close to its 35th-percentile risk score.
Zachary's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Zachary's buildings (51.2%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 8,330 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Zachary against the rest of the country
Zachary's risk sits at a similar level relative to Louisiana (33rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (35th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Zachary ranks 20,485 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,999 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 326 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Zachary
At the 35th national percentile, Zachary rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Zachary's 51.2% 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 8,330 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Zachary. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Zachary, see the exposure-zones guide.