Onset, MA
How exposed is Onset to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Onset at the 20th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 1,145 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Onset's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 14th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Onset rates 52.5% Minimal exposure against just 6.8% Direct and 40.7% Indirect — of 1,145 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Onset ranks
Onset scores 20th nationally and 22nd 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, Onset ranks 25,276 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,989 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 195 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Onset's low wildfire rating (20th 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
Even with 52.5% of Onset outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,145 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Onset. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Onset, see the exposure-zones guide.