Smith Island, MD
How exposed is Smith Island to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Smith Island lands at the 88th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 289 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Smith Island at the 83rd percentile, close to its 88th-percentile risk score.
Where Smith Island's buildings actually sit
Most of Smith Island's buildings (70.9% of 289) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Smith Island ranks
Smith Island's risk sits at a similar level relative to Maryland (97th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (88th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Smith Island ranks 3,723 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,942 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 17 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Smith Island
Smith Island's very high rating (88th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
Smith Island's 70.9% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 289 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Smith Island. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Smith Island, see the exposure-zones guide.