Damascus, OR
How exposed is Damascus to wildfire?
Damascus sits at the 38th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 6,488 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Damascus at the 39th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Damascus's buildings actually sit
Of Damascus's 6,488 counted buildings, 61.1% carry Direct exposure and only 1.2% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first. At 6,488 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Damascus compares
Damascus scores 38th nationally and 35th within Oregon — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Damascus ranks 19,675 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,676 by building count (1 is largest). Within Oregon alone, it ranks 274 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Oregon on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Because Damascus is in Oregon, a wildfire-hazard disclosure is legally required before a sale closes here — unusual nationally, since only these two states mandate it. Full detail in the disclosure-law guide.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Damascus (61.1%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Damascus's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Damascus's 19,675-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Damascus's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.