Mount Savage, MD
Mount Savage wildfire risk explained
Mount Savage sits at the 54th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 473 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Mount Savage at the 52nd national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 52.2% of Mount Savage's 473 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 47.8% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Mount Savage compares
Compare Mount Savage's two percentiles: 75th within Maryland, only 54th nationally — a gap of 21 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mount Savage ranks 14,497 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,825 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 134 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Mount Savage's elevated wildfire rating (54th 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 Mount Savage
Mount Savage's 52.2% 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.
Where Mount Savage's figures come from
Mount Savage's 54th-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 Mount Savage's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.