Dover, MA
Dover wildfire risk explained
Dover's 1,131 buildings earn a 41st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Dover at the 37th percentile, close to its 41st-percentile risk score.
Where Dover's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 86.4% of Dover's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 12.5% Indirect share and far above its 1.2% Minimal share — a profile where 977 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Dover compares
Compare Dover's two percentiles: 97th within Massachusetts, only 41st nationally — a gap of 55 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Dover ranks 18,495 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,074 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 9 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Dover
Dover's elevated wildfire rating (41st 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 Dover
Dover's 86.4% 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 Dover's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Dover's 18,495-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Dover's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.