North Pownal, VT
North Pownal, VT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores North Pownal at the 24th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 221 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks North Pownal at the 24th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where North Pownal's buildings actually sit
221 buildings are counted in North Pownal, and 98.2% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
Where North Pownal ranks
Within Vermont, North Pownal ranks higher (98th percentile) than it does nationally (24th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, North Pownal ranks 24,032 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,103 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 5 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
North Pownal and the insurance market
North Pownal's moderate wildfire rating (24th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
North Pownal's 98.2% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where North Pownal's figures come from
North Pownal's 24th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what North Pownal's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.