Forest Heights, MD
Forest Heights wildfire risk explained
Forest Heights sits at the 31st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,084 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Forest Heights's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 30th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Forest Heights's buildings (84.2% of 1,084) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Forest Heights ranks
Forest Heights's 48th-percentile standing inside Maryland outpaces its 31st 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, Forest Heights ranks 21,833 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,382 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 275 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Forest Heights and the insurance market
Forest Heights's moderate rating (31st 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
Forest Heights's 84.2% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,084 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Forest Heights. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Forest Heights, see the exposure-zones guide.