Laurium, MI
How exposed is Laurium to wildfire?
Laurium sits at the 40th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,026 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 Laurium at the 41st percentile, close to its 40th-percentile risk score.
Where Laurium's buildings actually sit
Most of Laurium's buildings (95.2%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Laurium against the rest of the country
Within Michigan, Laurium ranks higher (91st percentile) than it does nationally (40th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Laurium ranks 18,810 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,751 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 67 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Laurium and the insurance market
Laurium's elevated wildfire rating (40th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 95.2% of Laurium'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.
Where Laurium's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,026 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Laurium. The exposure-zones guide covers what Laurium's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.