Burlington, MA
Burlington wildfire risk explained
Burlington sits at the 27th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 8,243 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Burlington's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 24th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
93.2% of Burlington's 8,243 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 6.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 8,243 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Burlington ranks
Compare Burlington's two percentiles: 62nd within Massachusetts, only 27th nationally — a gap of 35 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Burlington ranks 22,881 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,027 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 93 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Burlington and the insurance market
At the 27th national percentile, Burlington 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 Burlington
With 93.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Burlington gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Burlington's 22,881-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Burlington, see the exposure-zones guide.