Lewes, DE
How exposed is Lewes to wildfire?
Lewes's 2,878 buildings earn a 72nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Lewes at the 63rd national percentile — 9 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
USFS puts 62.2% of Lewes's 2,878 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 10.1% Direct and 27.7% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Lewes ranks
Lewes's 97th-percentile standing inside Delaware outpaces its 72nd 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, Lewes ranks 8,877 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,617 by building count (1 is largest). Within Delaware alone, it ranks 3 of 79 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Delaware on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Lewes's 72nd-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Hardening a home in Lewes
Because 62.2% of Lewes'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 Lewes's figures come from
Lewes's 72nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lewes's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.