Meriden, CT
Meriden wildfire risk explained
Meriden's 19,712 buildings earn a 36th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Meriden's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 35th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Meriden's buildings (49%) 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 19,712 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Meriden against the rest of the country
Meriden's 64th-percentile standing inside Connecticut outpaces its 36th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Meriden ranks 20,161 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 722 by building count (1 is largest). Within Connecticut alone, it ranks 78 of 214 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Connecticut on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Meriden's moderate rating (36th 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
Meriden's 49% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Meriden's 36th-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 Meriden, see the exposure-zones guide.