Manchester, MD
Manchester wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Manchester at the 11th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 1,951 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Manchester at the 9th percentile, close to its 11th-percentile risk score.
Manchester's building exposure, zone by zone
1,951 buildings are counted in Manchester, and 59.7% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 2.1% rated Minimal.
Where Manchester ranks
There's little gap between Manchester's 11th national percentile and its 6th percentile inside Maryland, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Manchester ranks 28,173 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,612 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 498 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 11th national percentile, Manchester rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Manchester
Manchester's 59.7% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Manchester's figures come from
Manchester's 11th-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 Manchester's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.