Bourne, MA
How exposed is Bourne to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Bourne lands at the 30th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 1,097 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Bourne at the 21st percentile, close to its 30th-percentile risk score.
Where Bourne's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 67.6% of Bourne's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 6.2% Direct and 26.3% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Bourne ranks
Compare Bourne's two percentiles: 79th within Massachusetts, only 30th nationally — a gap of 49 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bourne ranks 21,993 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,297 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 53 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 30th national percentile, Bourne rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Bourne
Even with 67.6% of Bourne 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.
Where Bourne's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,097 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bourne. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bourne's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.