Pearl Beach, MI
Pearl Beach, MI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Pearl Beach's 2,916 buildings earn a 30th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Pearl Beach's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 27th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 54.4% of Pearl Beach's 2,916 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 37.8% Direct and 7.8% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Pearl Beach against the rest of the country
Within Michigan, Pearl Beach ranks higher (82nd percentile) than it does nationally (30th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pearl Beach ranks 22,087 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,559 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 133 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Pearl Beach
Pearl Beach's moderate wildfire rating (30th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Pearl Beach (54.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Pearl Beach's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Pearl Beach's 22,087-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pearl Beach's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.