Malden, IN
Malden wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Malden at the 4th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 159 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Malden's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 4th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Malden's 159 counted buildings, 68.6% carry Direct exposure and only 31.5% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Malden against the rest of the country
Compare Malden's two percentiles: 30th within Indiana, only 4th nationally — a gap of 26 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Malden ranks 30,219 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,480 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 676 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Malden
Malden's low wildfire rating (4th 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
With 68.6% of Malden in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Malden's 30,219-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Malden, see the exposure-zones guide.