Bend, OR
Bend, OR's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Bend sits at the 80th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 41,456 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bend's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 80th percentile nationally.
Bend's building exposure, zone by zone
52.7% of Bend's 41,456 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 24.6% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 41,456 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Bend compares
Bend's 80th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 61st ranking inside Oregon does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 19 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bend ranks 6,308 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 228 by building count (1 is largest). Within Oregon alone, it ranks 163 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Oregon on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bend
Because Bend is in Oregon, a wildfire-hazard disclosure is legally required before a sale closes here — unusual nationally, since only these two states mandate it. Full detail in the disclosure-law guide.
Hardening a home in Bend
Even with 52.7% of Bend outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bend's 6,308-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Bend, see the exposure-zones guide.