Castine, ME
How exposed is Castine to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Castine at the 10th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 556 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Castine at the 9th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Castine's buildings actually sit
48.9% of Castine's 556 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 272 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 47.5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 3.6% are Minimal.
Where Castine ranks
Castine's 49th-percentile standing inside Maine outpaces its 10th 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, Castine ranks 28,368 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,476 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 77 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 10th national percentile, Castine rates low 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 Castine
Castine's 48.9% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 556 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Castine. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Castine, see the exposure-zones guide.