Pleasant Hills, MD
Pleasant Hills wildfire risk explained
Pleasant Hills's 1,742 buildings earn a 18th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Pleasant Hills's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 16th percentile nationally.
Pleasant Hills's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Pleasant Hills's 1,742 counted buildings, 80.6% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Pleasant Hills compares
Pleasant Hills scores 18th nationally and 22nd within Maryland — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pleasant Hills ranks 25,813 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,258 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 415 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 18th national percentile, Pleasant Hills 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Pleasant Hills (80.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Pleasant Hills's figures come from
Pleasant Hills's 18th-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 Pleasant Hills's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.