Pylesville, MD
How exposed is Pylesville to wildfire?
Pylesville sits at the 10th 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 455 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 Pylesville at the 9th percentile, close to its 10th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
87.7% of Pylesville's 455 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 399 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 5.5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 6.8% are Minimal.
How Pylesville compares
Pylesville's risk sits at a similar level relative to Maryland (4th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (10th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pylesville ranks 28,460 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,175 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 505 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Pylesville and the insurance market
At the 10th national percentile, Pylesville 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
Pylesville's 87.7% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Pylesville's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Pylesville's 28,460-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pylesville's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.