Auburn, ME
How exposed is Auburn to wildfire?
Auburn's 9,665 buildings earn a 9th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Auburn at the 9th percentile, close to its 9th-percentile risk score.
Where Auburn's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 44.9% of Auburn's 9,665 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 43.1% Direct and 12% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 9,665 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Auburn against the rest of the country
Compare Auburn's two percentiles: 42nd within Maine, only 9th nationally — a gap of 33 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Auburn ranks 28,613 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,691 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 88 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Auburn's low rating (9th 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
Auburn's 44.9% 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.
Where Auburn's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 9,665 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Auburn. The exposure-zones guide covers what Auburn's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.