Maricopa, AZ
Maricopa wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Maricopa at the 66th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 22,314 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 Maricopa at the 70th percentile, close to its 66th-percentile risk score.
Where Maricopa's buildings actually sit
Most of Maricopa's buildings (54.2%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 22,314 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Maricopa compares
Maricopa ranks lower within Arizona (30th percentile statewide) than its 66th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Maricopa ranks 10,706 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 606 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arizona alone, it ranks 311 of 441 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arizona on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 66th percentile nationally, Maricopa carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Maricopa
Because 54.2% of Maricopa's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Maricopa's figures come from
Maricopa's 66th-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 Maricopa's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.