Hopedale, MA
How exposed is Hopedale to wildfire?
Hopedale sits at the 31st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,279 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Hopedale at the 28th percentile, close to its 31st-percentile risk score.
Where Hopedale's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Hopedale (76.9% of 1,279 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 23.1% sit in the Direct zone.
Hopedale against the rest of the country
Compare Hopedale's two percentiles: 80th within Massachusetts, only 31st nationally — a gap of 49 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hopedale ranks 21,835 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,201 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 50 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Hopedale
Hopedale's moderate wildfire rating (31st 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Hopedale's 76.9% 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.
Where Hopedale's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hopedale's 21,835-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hopedale's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.