Lake Chaffee, CT
How exposed is Lake Chaffee to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Lake Chaffee at the 32nd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 212 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Lake Chaffee's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 29th percentile nationally.
Lake Chaffee's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Lake Chaffee: 89.2% of its 212 buildings, versus 2.8% Indirect and 8% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Lake Chaffee against the rest of the country
Compare Lake Chaffee's two percentiles: 50th within Connecticut, only 32nd nationally — a gap of 19 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lake Chaffee ranks 21,545 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,389 by building count (1 is largest). Within Connecticut alone, it ranks 106 of 214 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Connecticut on its state page.
Lake Chaffee and the insurance market
Lake Chaffee's moderate rating (32nd 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
With 89.2% of Lake Chaffee in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Lake Chaffee's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Lake Chaffee's 21,545-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lake Chaffee's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.