Charlestown, RI
Charlestown, RI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Charlestown at the 14th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 2,024 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Charlestown at the 13th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Charlestown's building exposure, zone by zone
2,024 buildings are counted in Charlestown, and 57.8% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 10.7% in Direct exposure or the 31.6% rated Minimal.
Where Charlestown ranks
Within Rhode Island, Charlestown ranks higher (43rd percentile) than it does nationally (14th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Charlestown ranks 27,149 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,404 by building count (1 is largest). Within Rhode Island alone, it ranks 21 of 36 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Rhode Island on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Charlestown
Charlestown's low wildfire rating (14th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Charlestown (57.8% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Charlestown's 27,149-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Charlestown, see the exposure-zones guide.