Frequently asked questions
The questions we get most, answered plainly — including the ones where the honest answer is that we cannot help.
Is the wildfire risk score really free?
Yes, and there is no account, no email gate and no trial. Enter an address, get the score and the factors behind it. We earn through affiliate arrangements described on our about page, not by charging for the score.
Is this the same score my insurance company uses?
No. Carriers license proprietary catastrophe models — Verisk FireLine, ZestyAI Z-FIRE, CoreLogic — and you generally cannot see the inputs or the weighting. Ours is built entirely from open federal data with the weighting published. Treat it as an independent reference point, not a replica of your carrier's number.
What data is the score built from?
Five sources: FEMA's National Risk Index for wildfire hazard and frequency, NIFC's interagency fire perimeter history for recorded burns within 25 miles, USGS 3DEP elevation for slope, and the National Weather Service gridpoint forecast for current fire weather. Every one is public and linked from the methodology page.
Does a Low score mean my house is safe?
No. The score is relative — it tells you how your location compares to others, not that a fire cannot reach you. Embers travel well over a mile ahead of a fire front, and houses have burned in areas nobody considered high hazard. Zone 0 clearance and ember-resistant vents are worth doing at any band.
Why do my neighbour and I get different scores?
Slope, aspect, surrounding fuel and distance to recorded fire history can change meaningfully over a few hundred feet, and terrain is sampled at roughly 90 metres around the point. That said, the federal rasters have finite resolution, so two adjacent homes can genuinely differ more than the data can see.
Can I lower my score?
Not directly — the score measures the hazard of the location, and clearing your garden does not change the terrain or the fuel on the ridge above you. What mitigation changes is your actual survival odds and how an underwriter rates you. Several states now require insurers to recognise documented wildfire mitigation. What qualifies.
My insurer sent a non-renewal letter. What now?
A non-renewal is not a cancellation — your cover runs to the expiry date, and notice periods are commonly 45 to 75 days. Use that window immediately, because the market for high-hazard parcels is thin and slow. Document any mitigation first, then work with an independent broker who can access surplus lines carriers. The full sequence.
What is a FAIR Plan and is it enough on its own?
A FAIR Plan is a state-created insurer of last resort. It genuinely will cover a property nobody else will write, but it is typically fire and smoke only — no liability, no theft, no water damage. That is why it is usually paired with a difference-in-conditions policy from a private carrier. How the pairing works.
How often does the fire map update?
It queries the interagency feed every time you load the page. Agencies update individual incident records irregularly, often a few times a day, so a fire's real edge can be ahead of what is mapped. It is an awareness tool, not an evacuation map.
Can I use this to decide whether to evacuate?
No, and please do not. We are not an emergency service, our data lags the ground, and we have no visibility of local conditions or road closures. Follow your county emergency management office, official alert systems and any order from responders on scene.
Do you store my address?
Your address is sent to geocoding services to convert it into coordinates, and to the federal services that compute the score. We do not sell it. The privacy page sets out exactly which third parties receive it and why.
Does the score cover Canada or Europe?
Not yet. The model depends on US federal datasets that have no direct equivalent elsewhere. The live fire map is US-only for the same reason.
How do you make money if everything is free?
Affiliate commissions on insurance broker matching and mitigation equipment, disclosed where they appear. No partner can pay to change a risk band or influence what we write. Full detail on the about page.
I think my score is wrong.
Tell us and we will re-run the point and publish what we find. Terrain and fire-history errors are the most useful to hear about. Contact us.
Something else?
Ask us directly. Contact page.