Athol, MA
Athol wildfire risk explained
Athol's 3,881 buildings earn a 23rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Athol at the 22nd national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Athol's building exposure, zone by zone
70.9% of Athol's 3,881 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 29.1% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Athol compares
There's little gap between Athol's 23rd national percentile and its 35th percentile inside Massachusetts, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Athol ranks 24,234 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,355 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 162 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Athol
Athol's moderate rating (23rd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Athol (70.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Athol's 23rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Athol, see the exposure-zones guide.