Bel Air South, MD
How exposed is Bel Air South to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Bel Air South lands at the 17th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 18,155 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bel Air South's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 15th percentile nationally.
Bel Air South's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 45.1% of Bel Air South's 18,155 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 42.6% Direct and 12.3% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 18,155 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Bel Air South compares
Bel Air South scores 17th nationally and 18th within Maryland — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bel Air South ranks 26,281 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 787 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 433 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bel Air South
Bel Air South's low rating (17th 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
Because 45.1% of Bel Air South'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 South's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bel Air South's 26,281-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bel Air South's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.