Popponesset, MA
Popponesset, MA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Popponesset lands at the 30th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 640 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Popponesset at the 21st national percentile — 9 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 98.8% of Popponesset's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 1.3% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Popponesset ranks
Compare Popponesset's two percentiles: 77th within Massachusetts, only 30th nationally — a gap of 47 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Popponesset ranks 22,120 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,326 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 61 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Popponesset's moderate rating (30th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Popponesset's 98.8% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 640 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Popponesset. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Popponesset, see the exposure-zones guide.