Brandywine, MD
Brandywine wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Brandywine at the 42nd national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 4,375 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Brandywine at the 41st national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Brandywine's building exposure, zone by zone
4,375 buildings are counted in Brandywine, and 65.9% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Brandywine compares
Within Maryland, Brandywine ranks higher (60th percentile) than it does nationally (42nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Brandywine ranks 18,370 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,901 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 212 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Brandywine
Brandywine's elevated rating (42nd 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 65.9% of Brandywine 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.
Where Brandywine's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 4,375 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Brandywine. The exposure-zones guide covers what Brandywine's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.