Wildfire Risk to Communities

Wildfire Risk to Communities is a free, easy-to-use website with interactive maps, charts, and resources to help communities understand, explore, and reduce wildfire risk. The website was created by the USDA Forest Service under the direction of Congress and is designed to be a starting point to help community leaders, such as elected officials, community planners, and fire managers, to be able to assess and reduce risk to homes, businesses, and other valued resources.

This interactive website can help identify where wildfire hazard mitigation and planning efforts are most needed, prioritize mitigation efforts in the states or counties with the greatest risk, and find resources to help mitigate and manage risk. This is the first time wildfire risk to communities has been mapped nationwide.

Wildfire Risk to Communities provides data through interactive maps and charts showing risk to homes, exposure types, wildfire likelihood, and vulnerable populations. The web site is designed so that anyone can access the data*. No technical or mapping skills are required, making the interactive website very versatile and useful for diverse users. Geospatial and tabular data are available for download to facilitate additional analysis. Please note that the data are not locally calibrated and are not fine scale; the data are best for considering risk as aggregated across a community rather than at the local, neighborhood, or individual home scale.

In addition to being able to use the data to assess community, county, state or regional risk, Wildfire Risk to Communities also provides vital steps a community can take to mitigate risk through home hardening, wildfire preparedness, fuel treatments, and more.

Please visit the Wildfire Risk to Communities website to learn more.

To download data from this project visit the Research Data Archive page.

* USDA Disclaimer: This website may not contain up-to-date or complete information. Users rely on it at their own risk and need to make their own decisions.

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Wildfire Risk to Communities website screenshot