Orleans, VT
Orleans, VT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Orleans lands at the 13th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 422 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Orleans's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 14th percentile nationally.
Orleans's building exposure, zone by zone
67.5% of Orleans's 422 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 32.5% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Orleans compares
There's little gap between Orleans's 13th national percentile and its 23rd percentile inside Vermont, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Orleans ranks 27,401 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,794 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 140 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Orleans and the insurance market
Orleans's low rating (13th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 67.5% of Orleans'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 Orleans's 27,401-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Orleans, see the exposure-zones guide.