Bel Air (Allegany), MD
How exposed is Bel Air (Allegany) to wildfire?
USFS scores Bel Air (Allegany) at the 55th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 699 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bel Air (Allegany) at the 53rd national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Bel Air (Allegany)'s buildings actually sit
Most of Bel Air (Allegany)'s buildings (59.1%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Bel Air (Allegany) ranks
Compare Bel Air (Allegany)'s two percentiles: 78th within Maryland, only 55th nationally — a gap of 23 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bel Air (Allegany) ranks 14,149 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,663 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 118 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Bel Air (Allegany) and the insurance market
At the 55th national percentile, Bel Air (Allegany) rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 59.1% of Bel Air (Allegany)'s buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Bel Air (Allegany)'s figures come from
Bel Air (Allegany)'s 55th-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 Bel Air (Allegany)'s dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.