Harbor Beach, MI
Harbor Beach, MI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Harbor Beach at the 10th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 1,231 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Harbor Beach's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 10th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Harbor Beach's buildings (83.8% of 1,231) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Harbor Beach against the rest of the country
Compare Harbor Beach's two percentiles: 31st within Michigan, only 10th nationally — a gap of 21 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Harbor Beach ranks 28,524 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,464 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 513 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Harbor Beach and the insurance market
Harbor Beach's low wildfire rating (10th 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
Even with 83.8% of Harbor Beach outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Harbor Beach's figures come from
Harbor Beach's 10th-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 Harbor Beach's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.