Provincetown, MA
Provincetown, MA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Provincetown at the 20th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 2,689 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Provincetown at the 16th percentile, close to its 20th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
2,689 buildings are counted in Provincetown, and 93.7% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 5.4% in Direct exposure or the 0.9% rated Minimal.
How Provincetown compares
There's little gap between Provincetown's 20th national percentile and its 24th percentile inside Massachusetts, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Provincetown ranks 25,087 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,946 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 190 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Provincetown and the insurance market
Provincetown's moderate rating (20th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Provincetown's 93.7% 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.
More on how this number was built
Provincetown's 20th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Provincetown, see the exposure-zones guide.