New Bedford, MA
How exposed is New Bedford to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts New Bedford at the 16th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 26,688 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 New Bedford at the 15th percentile, close to its 16th-percentile risk score.
Where New Bedford's buildings actually sit
59.6% of New Bedford's 26,688 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 2% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 26,688 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where New Bedford ranks
New Bedford's risk sits at a similar level relative to Massachusetts (10th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (16th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, New Bedford ranks 26,380 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 464 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 224 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
New Bedford and the insurance market
New Bedford's low rating (16th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in New Bedford
Even with 59.6% of New Bedford outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
New Bedford's 16th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond New Bedford, see the exposure-zones guide.