Mars Hill, ME
Mars Hill, ME's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Mars Hill's 563 buildings earn a 15th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Mars Hill at the 14th percentile, close to its 15th-percentile risk score.
Mars Hill's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Mars Hill's buildings (62.2%) 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.
Mars Hill against the rest of the country
Within Maine, Mars Hill ranks higher (70th percentile) than it does nationally (15th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mars Hill ranks 26,911 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,359 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 47 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
Mars Hill and the insurance market
Mars Hill's low rating (15th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Mars Hill (62.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Mars Hill's 15th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Mars Hill, see the exposure-zones guide.