Smith Mills, MA
Smith Mills, MA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Smith Mills's 2,218 buildings earn a 13th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Smith Mills at the 12th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
69.3% of Smith Mills's 2,218 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 25.1% Direct and 5.6% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Smith Mills ranks
Smith Mills scores 13th nationally and 2nd within Massachusetts — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Smith Mills ranks 27,483 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,885 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 242 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
Smith Mills and the insurance market
Smith Mills's low rating (13th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Smith Mills's 69.3% 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
Smith Mills's 13th-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 Smith Mills, see the exposure-zones guide.