Pontiac, MI
How exposed is Pontiac to wildfire?
USFS scores Pontiac at the 8th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 23,059 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Pontiac at the 9th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Pontiac's building exposure, zone by zone
96% of Pontiac's 23,059 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 4% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 23,059 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Pontiac ranks
There's little gap between Pontiac's 8th national percentile and its 22nd percentile inside Michigan, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pontiac ranks 29,096 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 570 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 577 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Pontiac's low wildfire rating (8th 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
Even with 96% of Pontiac outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Pontiac's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 23,059 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Pontiac. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pontiac's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.