Bancroft, MI
Bancroft, MI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Bancroft at the 10th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 320 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bancroft at the 10th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
41.6% of Bancroft's 320 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 35% Direct and 23.4% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Bancroft against the rest of the country
Compare Bancroft's two percentiles: 32nd within Michigan, only 10th nationally — a gap of 22 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bancroft ranks 28,496 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,091 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 507 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Bancroft's low wildfire rating (10th 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.
Hardening a home in Bancroft
Bancroft's 41.6% 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.
Where Bancroft's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bancroft's 28,496-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bancroft's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.