Gardner, MA
How exposed is Gardner to wildfire?
Gardner sits at the 23rd 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 7,444 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gardner at the 23rd national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Gardner's building exposure, zone by zone
7,444 buildings are counted in Gardner, and 72.1% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 26.6% in Direct exposure or the 1.3% rated Minimal. At 7,444 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Gardner against the rest of the country
Gardner scores 23rd nationally and 32nd within Massachusetts — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gardner ranks 24,392 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,294 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 168 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Gardner and the insurance market
Gardner's moderate wildfire rating (23rd 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Gardner (72.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Gardner's figures come from
Gardner's 23rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Gardner's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.