Chisholm, ME
Chisholm wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Chisholm at the 7th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 672 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Chisholm at the 7th percentile, close to its 7th-percentile risk score.
Where Chisholm's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 50.3% of Chisholm's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 49.7% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 338 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Chisholm compares
Chisholm scores 7th nationally and 4th within Maine — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chisholm ranks 29,433 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,949 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 149 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
Chisholm and the insurance market
Chisholm's low wildfire rating (7th 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 Chisholm
Chisholm'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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 672 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Chisholm. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Chisholm, see the exposure-zones guide.