Machias, ME
How exposed is Machias to wildfire?
USFS scores Machias at the 39th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 777 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Machias's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 39th percentile nationally.
Machias's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Machias (80.3% of 777 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 19.7% sit in the Direct zone.
How Machias compares
Compare Machias's two percentiles: 100th within Maine, only 39th nationally — a gap of 61 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Machias ranks 19,253 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,842 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 1 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Machias
Machias's moderate rating (39th 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
Machias's 80.3% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Machias's 19,253-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Machias, see the exposure-zones guide.