Prince Frederick, MD
How exposed is Prince Frederick to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Prince Frederick lands at the 64th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 962 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Prince Frederick at the 64th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Prince Frederick's building exposure, zone by zone
50.5% of Prince Frederick's 962 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 49.5% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Prince Frederick compares
Within Maryland, Prince Frederick ranks higher (89th percentile) than it does nationally (64th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Prince Frederick ranks 11,378 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,208 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 59 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
Prince Frederick's 64th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Prince Frederick's 50.5% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Prince Frederick's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 962 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Prince Frederick. The exposure-zones guide covers what Prince Frederick's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.