Cochituate, MA
How exposed is Cochituate to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Cochituate lands at the 31st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 2,566 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cochituate at the 27th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
63.8% of Cochituate's 2,566 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 36.2% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Cochituate ranks
Cochituate's 81st-percentile standing inside Massachusetts outpaces its 31st national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cochituate ranks 21,710 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,171 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 47 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Cochituate and the insurance market
Cochituate's moderate wildfire rating (31st 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 63.8% of Cochituate 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.
More on how this number was built
Cochituate's 31st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Cochituate, see the exposure-zones guide.