Ascutney, VT
Ascutney wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Ascutney at the 15th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 450 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Ascutney at the 16th percentile, close to its 15th-percentile risk score.
Ascutney's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 61.6% of Ascutney's 450 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 38.4% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Ascutney against the rest of the country
Within Vermont, Ascutney ranks higher (48th percentile) than it does nationally (15th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ascutney ranks 26,707 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,284 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 93 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ascutney
Ascutney's low rating (15th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Ascutney's 61.6% 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 450 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Ascutney. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Ascutney, see the exposure-zones guide.