Bivalve, MD
How exposed is Bivalve to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Bivalve at the 95th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 232 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Bivalve at the 94th percentile, close to its 95th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Bivalve's 232 counted buildings, 81% carry Direct exposure and only 6.9% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Bivalve compares
Bivalve scores 95th nationally and 98th 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, Bivalve ranks 1,727 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,737 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 11 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 95th percentile nationally, Bivalve carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Bivalve
Bivalve's 81% 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.
Where Bivalve's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bivalve's 1,727-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bivalve's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.