Highgate Springs, VT
How exposed is Highgate Springs to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Highgate Springs lands at the 13th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 187 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Highgate Springs at the 10th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Highgate Springs's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 61.5% of Highgate Springs's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 25.1% Indirect share and far above its 13.4% Minimal share — a profile where 115 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Where Highgate Springs ranks
There's little gap between Highgate Springs's 13th national percentile and its 22nd percentile inside Vermont, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Highgate Springs ranks 27,400 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,375 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 139 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Highgate Springs
Highgate Springs's low rating (13th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Highgate Springs's 61.5% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Highgate Springs's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 187 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Highgate Springs. The exposure-zones guide covers what Highgate Springs's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.