Providence, RI
How exposed is Providence to wildfire?
Providence sits at the 6th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 43,426 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 Providence at the 6th percentile, close to its 6th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Providence rates 99.9% Minimal exposure against just 0.2% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 43,426 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 43,426 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Providence compares
Providence scores 6th nationally and 0th within Rhode Island — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Providence ranks 29,673 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 216 by building count (1 is largest). Within Rhode Island alone, it ranks 36 of 36 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Rhode Island on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Providence
At the 6th national percentile, Providence rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Providence
With 99.9% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Providence gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 43,426 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Providence. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Providence, see the exposure-zones guide.