Durham, CT
Durham, CT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Durham at the 46th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,064 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Durham's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 45th percentile nationally.
Durham's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Durham's 2,064 counted buildings, 90% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Durham compares
Durham's 97th-percentile standing inside Connecticut outpaces its 46th 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, Durham ranks 17,133 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,300 by building count (1 is largest). Within Connecticut alone, it ranks 7 of 214 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Connecticut on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Durham's elevated rating (46th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Durham (90%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Durham's 17,133-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Durham, see the exposure-zones guide.