Hastings, MI
Hastings, MI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Hastings at the 15th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 3,360 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Hastings at the 16th percentile, close to its 15th-percentile risk score.
Hastings's building exposure, zone by zone
86.5% of Hastings's 3,360 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 13.3% Direct and 0.2% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Hastings compares
Compare Hastings's two percentiles: 51st within Michigan, only 15th nationally — a gap of 36 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hastings ranks 26,854 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,972 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 366 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Hastings and the insurance market
Hastings's low wildfire rating (15th 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.
Hardening a home in Hastings
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Hastings (86.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Hastings's figures come from
Hastings's 15th-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 Hastings's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.