Grand Marais, MI
Grand Marais wildfire risk explained
Grand Marais's 622 buildings earn a 46th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Grand Marais at the 42nd national percentile — 5 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Grand Marais's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Grand Marais: 52.6% of its 622 buildings, versus 47% Indirect and 0.5% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Grand Marais compares
Compare Grand Marais's two percentiles: 94th within Michigan, only 46th nationally — a gap of 48 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Grand Marais ranks 16,956 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,528 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 47 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Grand Marais's elevated rating (46th 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
With 52.6% of Grand Marais 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
Grand Marais's 46th-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 Grand Marais, see the exposure-zones guide.