Ontonagon, MI
Ontonagon, MI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Ontonagon lands at the 35th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 1,171 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Ontonagon at the 36th percentile, close to its 35th-percentile risk score.
Where Ontonagon's buildings actually sit
Most of Ontonagon's buildings (67.6%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Ontonagon against the rest of the country
Compare Ontonagon's two percentiles: 86th within Michigan, only 35th nationally — a gap of 51 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ontonagon ranks 20,572 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,821 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 105 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Ontonagon and the insurance market
At the 35th national percentile, Ontonagon rates moderate 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 Ontonagon
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Ontonagon (67.6% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Ontonagon's 35th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Ontonagon, see the exposure-zones guide.