Gaines, MI
How exposed is Gaines to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Gaines at the 7th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 228 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gaines at the 7th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Gaines's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Gaines's buildings (79.4% of 228) 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.
Gaines against the rest of the country
Gaines's risk sits at a similar level relative to Michigan (19th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (7th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gaines ranks 29,410 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,856 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 607 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Gaines
Gaines's low rating (7th 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
Gaines's 79.4% 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
Gaines's 7th-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 Gaines, see the exposure-zones guide.