Sabattus, ME
Sabattus wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Sabattus at the 9th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 429 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Sabattus at the 9th percentile, close to its 9th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
53.6% of Sabattus's 429 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 40.8% Direct and 5.6% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Sabattus compares
Within Maine, Sabattus ranks higher (45th percentile) than it does nationally (9th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sabattus ranks 28,589 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,672 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maine alone, it ranks 87 of 155 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maine on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Sabattus
At the 9th national percentile, Sabattus rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Sabattus's 53.6% 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
Sabattus's 9th-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 Sabattus, see the exposure-zones guide.