Richford, VT
Richford, VT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Richford sits at the 11th 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 584 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Richford's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 12th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Richford (71.8% of 584 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 28.3% sit in the Direct zone.
How Richford compares
There's little gap between Richford's 11th national percentile and its 6th percentile inside Vermont, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Richford ranks 28,033 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,054 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 168 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Richford and the insurance market
Richford's low wildfire rating (11th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Richford (71.8% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Richford's 28,033-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Richford, see the exposure-zones guide.