Bethel, OH
How exposed is Bethel to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Bethel at the 25th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 1,227 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bethel's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 27th percentile nationally.
Where Bethel's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Bethel: 55.3% of its 1,227 buildings, versus 44.7% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Bethel ranks
Compare Bethel's two percentiles: 57th within Ohio, only 25th nationally — a gap of 32 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bethel ranks 23,677 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,488 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 540 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Bethel's moderate rating (25th 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
Bethel's 55.3% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bethel's 23,677-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Bethel, see the exposure-zones guide.