Chewsville, MD
Chewsville wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Chewsville lands at the 21st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 153 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Chewsville at the 21st percentile, close to its 21st-percentile risk score.
Chewsville's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Chewsville's 153 counted buildings, 50.3% carry Direct exposure and only 48.4% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Chewsville ranks
There's little gap between Chewsville's 21st national percentile and its 30th percentile inside Maryland, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chewsville ranks 24,772 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,751 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 373 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Chewsville and the insurance market
Chewsville's moderate wildfire rating (21st 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 Chewsville
Chewsville's 50.3% 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 Chewsville's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 153 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Chewsville. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chewsville's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.