North Bethesda, MD
North Bethesda wildfire risk explained
USFS scores North Bethesda at the 10th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 8,056 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, North Bethesda's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 10th percentile nationally.
North Bethesda's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 66.5% of North Bethesda's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 33.5% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 8,056 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where North Bethesda ranks
North Bethesda scores 10th nationally and 4th within Maryland — 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 Bethesda ranks 28,521 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,089 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 506 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
North Bethesda and the insurance market
At the 10th national percentile, North Bethesda rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in North Bethesda
North Bethesda's 66.5% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
North Bethesda's 10th-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 North Bethesda, see the exposure-zones guide.