Calais, ME
How exposed is Calais to wildfire?
Calais's 2,169 buildings earn a 21st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Calais at the 20th percentile, close to its 21st-percentile risk score.
Where Calais's buildings actually sit
58.4% of Calais's 2,169 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 35.4% Direct and 6.2% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Calais compares
Calais's 88th-percentile standing inside Maine outpaces its 21st national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Calais ranks 24,994 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,022 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 19 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
Calais and the insurance market
At the 21st national percentile, Calais 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 Calais
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Calais (58.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Calais's 21st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Calais, see the exposure-zones guide.