Birmingham, MI
How exposed is Birmingham to wildfire?
Birmingham sits at the 6th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 9,433 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Birmingham's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 8th percentile nationally.
Where Birmingham's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 90% of Birmingham's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 10% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 9,433 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Birmingham ranks
Birmingham scores 6th nationally and 17th within Michigan — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Birmingham ranks 29,564 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,730 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 621 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Birmingham's low wildfire rating (6th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Birmingham
Even with 90% of Birmingham 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
Birmingham's 6th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Birmingham, see the exposure-zones guide.