Newark, MD
Newark, MD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Newark sits at the 58th 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 338 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Newark at the 58th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Newark's buildings actually sit
Of Newark's 338 counted buildings, 65.4% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Newark against the rest of the country
Compare Newark's two percentiles: 84th within Maryland, only 58th nationally — a gap of 25 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Newark ranks 13,110 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,631 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 88 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Newark and the insurance market
Newark's elevated rating (58th 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 65.4% of Newark in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Newark's 13,110-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Newark, see the exposure-zones guide.