Riverside, MD
How exposed is Riverside to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Riverside lands at the 22nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 1,996 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Riverside at the 21st national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Riverside's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Riverside's buildings (37.9%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Riverside against the rest of the country
Riverside's risk sits at a similar level relative to Maryland (31st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (22nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Riverside ranks 24,584 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,488 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 366 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Riverside
Riverside's moderate wildfire rating (22nd 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 37.9% of Riverside's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Riverside's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,996 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Riverside. The exposure-zones guide covers what Riverside's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.