Somerville, MA
How exposed is Somerville to wildfire?
Somerville's 13,991 buildings earn a 18th-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 Somerville at the 15th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Somerville's buildings actually sit
Most of Somerville's buildings (100% of 13,991) 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 13,991 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Somerville against the rest of the country
Somerville scores 18th nationally and 15th 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, Somerville ranks 25,873 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,073 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 213 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
At the 18th national percentile, Somerville rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 100% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Somerville gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Somerville's 18th-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 Somerville, see the exposure-zones guide.