Gales Ferry, CT
How exposed is Gales Ferry to wildfire?
Gales Ferry sits at the 24th 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 627 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gales Ferry's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 21st percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
65.4% of Gales Ferry's 627 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 410 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 5.6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 29% are Minimal.
Gales Ferry against the rest of the country
Gales Ferry scores 24th nationally and 20th within Connecticut — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gales Ferry ranks 24,069 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,477 by building count (1 is largest). Within Connecticut alone, it ranks 172 of 214 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Connecticut on its state page.
Gales Ferry and the insurance market
Gales Ferry's moderate wildfire rating (24th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Gales Ferry
With 65.4% of Gales Ferry in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Gales Ferry's 24th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Gales Ferry, see the exposure-zones guide.