Portland, ME
Portland, ME's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Portland's 21,380 buildings earn a 12th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Portland at the 12th percentile, close to its 12th-percentile risk score.
Where Portland's buildings actually sit
Only 10.7% of Portland's 21,380 buildings carry Direct exposure and 1.7% carry Indirect; the remaining 87.7% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 21,380 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Portland ranks
Portland's 56th-percentile standing inside Maine 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, Portland ranks 27,856 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 651 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 68 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 12th national percentile, Portland 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
Even with 87.7% of Portland 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 Portland's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Portland's 27,856-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Portland's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.