Somerset, MA
Somerset wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Somerset at the 15th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 8,018 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 Somerset at the 13th percentile, close to its 15th-percentile risk score.
Somerset's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Somerset's buildings (71.6% of 8,018) 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. At 8,018 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Somerset ranks
Somerset scores 15th nationally and 6th 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, Somerset ranks 26,851 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,106 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 233 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Somerset's low rating (15th 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
Somerset's 71.6% 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
Somerset's 15th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Somerset, see the exposure-zones guide.