Bad Axe, MI
How exposed is Bad Axe to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Bad Axe lands at the 8th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 1,836 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bad Axe'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
79% of Bad Axe's 1,836 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 17.4% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Bad Axe ranks
Compare Bad Axe's two percentiles: 23rd within Michigan, only 8th nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bad Axe ranks 29,060 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,958 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 571 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Bad Axe and the insurance market
Bad Axe's low wildfire rating (8th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
With 79% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Bad Axe gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Bad Axe's figures come from
Bad Axe's 8th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bad Axe's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.