Chesapeake Beach, MD
Chesapeake Beach, MD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Chesapeake Beach lands at the 56th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,833 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Chesapeake Beach at the 56th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
52.2% of Chesapeake Beach's 1,833 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 47.5% Direct and 0.4% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Chesapeake Beach against the rest of the country
Compare Chesapeake Beach's two percentiles: 79th within Maryland, only 56th nationally — a gap of 23 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chesapeake Beach ranks 14,024 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,970 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 113 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Chesapeake Beach
At the 56th national percentile, Chesapeake Beach rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 52.2% of Chesapeake Beach's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Chesapeake Beach's 14,024-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Chesapeake Beach, see the exposure-zones guide.