Lansdowne, MD
Lansdowne wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Lansdowne at the 20th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 1,856 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Lansdowne at the 20th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
96.1% of Lansdowne's 1,856 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 3.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Lansdowne against the rest of the country
Lansdowne scores 20th nationally and 25th within Maryland — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lansdowne ranks 25,246 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,889 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 398 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Lansdowne and the insurance market
Lansdowne's low rating (20th 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
Even with 96.1% of Lansdowne outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Lansdowne's 25,246-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Lansdowne, see the exposure-zones guide.