Chester, VT
Chester wildfire risk explained
Chester's 666 buildings earn a 17th-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 Chester at the 17th percentile, close to its 17th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 68% of Chester's 666 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 32% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Chester compares
Within Vermont, Chester ranks higher (66th percentile) than it does nationally (17th) — 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 26,300 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,007 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 59 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Chester
Chester's low wildfire rating (17th 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.
Hardening a home in Chester
Because 68% of Chester'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.
Where Chester's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 666 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Chester. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chester's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.