South Burlington, VT
South Burlington, VT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
South Burlington sits at the 12th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 6,286 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts South Burlington at the 12th percentile, close to its 12th-percentile risk score.
South Burlington's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 22.6% of South Burlington's 6,286 buildings carry Direct exposure and 17.3% carry Indirect; the remaining 60.1% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 6,286 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
South Burlington against the rest of the country
South Burlington scores 12th nationally and 10th within Vermont — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Burlington ranks 27,751 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,761 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 161 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
South Burlington and the insurance market
At the 12th national percentile, South Burlington rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in South Burlington
Even with 60.1% of South Burlington 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.
More on how this number was built
South Burlington's 12th-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 South Burlington, see the exposure-zones guide.