North Adams, MA
North Adams, MA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
North Adams sits at the 19th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 5,710 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks North Adams at the 19th national percentile — 0 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 66% of North Adams's 5,710 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 34% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 5,710 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
North Adams against the rest of the country
North Adams scores 19th nationally and 20th within Massachusetts — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, North Adams ranks 25,464 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,028 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 198 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in North Adams
At the 19th national percentile, North Adams rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 66% of North Adams's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind North Adams's 25,464-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond North Adams, see the exposure-zones guide.