Great Barrington, MA
How exposed is Great Barrington to wildfire?
Great Barrington's 1,215 buildings earn a 28th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Great Barrington at the 27th percentile, close to its 28th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
1,215 buildings are counted in Great Barrington, and 67% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 33% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Great Barrington ranks
Compare Great Barrington's two percentiles: 70th within Massachusetts, only 28th nationally — a gap of 41 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Great Barrington ranks 22,536 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,561 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 76 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Great Barrington
Great Barrington's moderate wildfire rating (28th 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
Great Barrington's 67% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Great Barrington's 28th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Great Barrington, see the exposure-zones guide.