Mardela Springs, MD
How exposed is Mardela Springs to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Mardela Springs at the 84th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 258 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Mardela Springs at the 84th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Mardela Springs's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 65.5% of Mardela Springs's 258 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 34.5% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Mardela Springs ranks
Mardela Springs's risk sits at a similar level relative to Maryland (96th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (84th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mardela Springs ranks 5,107 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,886 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 20 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Mardela Springs and the insurance market
Mardela Springs's 84th-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Mardela Springs (65.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Mardela Springs's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 258 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Mardela Springs. The exposure-zones guide covers what Mardela Springs's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.