Kingston, RI
Kingston wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Kingston at the 14th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 855 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Kingston at the 12th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Kingston's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Kingston (51.2% of 855 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 48.8% sit in the Direct zone.
How Kingston compares
Kingston's 40th-percentile standing inside Rhode Island outpaces its 14th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Kingston ranks 27,277 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,130 by building count (1 is largest). Within Rhode Island alone, it ranks 22 of 36 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Rhode Island on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 14th national percentile, Kingston rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 51.2% of Kingston's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Kingston's 14th-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 Kingston, see the exposure-zones guide.