Girdletree, MD
How exposed is Girdletree to wildfire?
Girdletree's 120 buildings earn a 69th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Girdletree at the 68th percentile, close to its 69th-percentile risk score.
Where Girdletree's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 80.8% of Girdletree's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 19.2% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 97 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Girdletree compares
Girdletree's 93rd-percentile standing inside Maryland outpaces its 69th 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, Girdletree ranks 9,640 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,146 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 40 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Girdletree's 69th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Girdletree's 80.8% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 120 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Girdletree. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Girdletree, see the exposure-zones guide.