Pownal, VT
Pownal, VT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Pownal sits at the 21st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 293 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Pownal at the 21st percentile, close to its 21st-percentile risk score.
Where Pownal's buildings actually sit
293 buildings are counted in Pownal, and 56% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 44% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Pownal against the rest of the country
Compare Pownal's two percentiles: 93rd within Vermont, only 21st nationally — a gap of 72 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pownal ranks 24,847 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,839 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 13 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Pownal and the insurance market
Pownal's moderate wildfire rating (21st 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
Because 56% of Pownal's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 293 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Pownal. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Pownal, see the exposure-zones guide.