Paw Paw Lake, MI
How exposed is Paw Paw Lake to wildfire?
USFS scores Paw Paw Lake at the 12th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 2,679 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Paw Paw Lake at the 12th percentile, close to its 12th-percentile risk score.
Where Paw Paw Lake's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 51.3% of Paw Paw Lake's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 7.5% Indirect share and far above its 41.2% Minimal share — a profile where 1,375 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Paw Paw Lake compares
Paw Paw Lake's 40th-percentile standing inside Michigan outpaces its 12th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Paw Paw Lake ranks 27,889 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,965 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 450 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Paw Paw Lake
At the 12th national percentile, Paw Paw Lake rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Paw Paw Lake's 51.3% 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 Paw Paw Lake's figures come from
Paw Paw Lake's 12th-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 Paw Paw Lake's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.