Gloucester, MA
Gloucester, MA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Gloucester at the 41st national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 12,552 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gloucester at the 35th national percentile — 6 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Gloucester's buildings actually sit
Most of Gloucester's buildings (61.6%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 12,552 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Gloucester against the rest of the country
Compare Gloucester's two percentiles: 96th within Massachusetts, only 41st nationally — a gap of 55 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gloucester ranks 18,651 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,226 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 11 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Gloucester
At the 41st national percentile, Gloucester rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 61.6% of Gloucester's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Gloucester's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Gloucester's 18,651-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Gloucester's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.