Derby Center, VT
How exposed is Derby Center to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Derby Center lands at the 12th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 356 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Derby Center at the 13th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Derby Center's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Derby Center (50.3% of 356 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 49.7% sit in the Direct zone.
Derby Center against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Derby Center's 12th national percentile and its 11th percentile inside Vermont, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Derby Center ranks 27,717 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,171 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 160 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Derby Center
At the 12th national percentile, Derby Center rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Derby Center (50.3% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Derby Center's 27,717-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Derby Center, see the exposure-zones guide.