Augusta, ME
Augusta wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Augusta at the 8th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 9,760 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Augusta's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 8th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
46.6% of Augusta's 9,760 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 4,548 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 36.6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 16.8% are Minimal. At 9,760 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Augusta compares
Within Maine, Augusta ranks higher (23rd percentile) than it does nationally (8th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Augusta ranks 29,151 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,674 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 120 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Augusta
Augusta's low rating (8th 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
Augusta's 46.6% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Augusta's 8th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Augusta, see the exposure-zones guide.