Cavendish, VT
How exposed is Cavendish to wildfire?
Cavendish's 214 buildings earn a 16th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Cavendish at the 16th percentile, close to its 16th-percentile risk score.
Where Cavendish's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 76.2% of Cavendish's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 23.8% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 163 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Cavendish compares
Compare Cavendish's two percentiles: 57th within Vermont, only 16th nationally — a gap of 41 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cavendish ranks 26,486 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,350 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 77 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cavendish
Cavendish's low wildfire rating (16th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Cavendish's 76.2% 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.
Where Cavendish's figures come from
Cavendish's 16th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cavendish's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.