Salem, MA
Salem wildfire risk explained
Salem's 10,469 buildings earn a 19th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Salem at the 17th percentile, close to its 19th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Salem rates 98.5% Minimal exposure against just 1.5% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 10,469 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 10,469 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Salem ranks
Salem's risk sits at a similar level relative to Massachusetts (18th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (19th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Salem ranks 25,623 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,519 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 204 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Salem
Salem's low rating (19th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 98.5% of Salem outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Salem's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Salem's 25,623-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Salem's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.