Mackinaw City, MI
Mackinaw City wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Mackinaw City lands at the 18th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 945 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Mackinaw City at the 17th percentile, close to its 18th-percentile risk score.
Where Mackinaw City's buildings actually sit
73.3% of Mackinaw City's 945 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 24.2% Direct and 2.4% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Mackinaw City compares
Within Michigan, Mackinaw City ranks higher (59th percentile) than it does nationally (18th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mackinaw City ranks 26,006 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,341 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 305 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Mackinaw City's low rating (18th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Mackinaw City's 73.3% 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 Mackinaw City's 26,006-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Mackinaw City, see the exposure-zones guide.