Bethel, VT
How exposed is Bethel to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Bethel lands at the 16th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 412 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bethel at the 16th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Bethel's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Bethel: 84.5% of its 412 buildings, versus 15.5% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Bethel ranks
Bethel's 53rd-percentile standing inside Vermont outpaces its 16th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bethel ranks 26,549 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,997 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 84 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bethel
Bethel's low rating (16th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With 84.5% of Bethel in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bethel's 26,549-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.