Newcastle, ME
How exposed is Newcastle to wildfire?
USFS scores Newcastle at the 7th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 418 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Newcastle at the 7th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Newcastle's building exposure, zone by zone
418 buildings are counted in Newcastle, and 70.3% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 2.6% rated Minimal.
Where Newcastle ranks
There's little gap between Newcastle's 7th national percentile and its 5th percentile inside Maine, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Newcastle ranks 29,405 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,858 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 146 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Newcastle
Newcastle's low wildfire rating (7th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Newcastle (70.3%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 418 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Newcastle. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Newcastle, see the exposure-zones guide.