Chester, MD
How exposed is Chester to wildfire?
Chester's 1,984 buildings earn a 37th-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 Chester at the 33rd percentile, close to its 37th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 42.5% of Chester's 1,984 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 57.5% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Chester against the rest of the country
Within Maryland, Chester ranks higher (56th percentile) than it does nationally (37th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chester ranks 19,910 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,521 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 234 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Chester and the insurance market
Chester's moderate wildfire rating (37th 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
Even with 57.5% of Chester outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Chester's figures come from
Chester's 37th-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 Chester's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.