Elsmere, DE
Elsmere wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Elsmere lands at the 27th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 1,539 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Elsmere at the 26th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Elsmere's buildings actually sit
94.2% of Elsmere's 1,539 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 5.8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Elsmere ranks
Elsmere's 27th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 12th ranking inside Delaware does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 16 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elsmere ranks 22,872 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,986 by building count (1 is largest). Within Delaware alone, it ranks 70 of 79 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Delaware on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Elsmere
At the 27th national percentile, Elsmere rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 94.2% of Elsmere 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
Elsmere's 27th-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 Elsmere, see the exposure-zones guide.