Ferndale, MI
Ferndale wildfire risk explained
Ferndale sits at the 5th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 11,343 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Ferndale at the 6th percentile, close to its 5th-percentile risk score.
Ferndale's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 0.7% of Ferndale's 11,343 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 99.3% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 11,343 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Ferndale ranks
Ferndale's risk sits at a similar level relative to Michigan (10th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (5th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ferndale ranks 30,108 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,394 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 671 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Ferndale and the insurance market
Ferndale's low rating (5th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 99.3% of Ferndale 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.
Where Ferndale's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 11,343 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Ferndale. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ferndale's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.