Marathon, OH
How exposed is Marathon to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Marathon lands at the 16th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 98 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Marathon at the 17th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Marathon's building exposure, zone by zone
54.1% of Marathon's 98 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 45.9% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Marathon compares
Compare Marathon's two percentiles: 44th within Ohio, only 16th nationally — a gap of 28 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Marathon ranks 26,582 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,146 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 712 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Marathon's low wildfire rating (16th 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.
Hardening a home in Marathon
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Marathon (54.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Marathon's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 98 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Marathon. The exposure-zones guide covers what Marathon's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.