St. Charles, MI
St. Charles wildfire risk explained
St. Charles sits at the 16th 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 1,044 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 St. Charles at the 17th percentile, close to its 16th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in St. Charles (60.5% of 1,044 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 39.5% sit in the Direct zone.
How St. Charles compares
Compare St. Charles's two percentiles: 54th within Michigan, only 16th nationally — a gap of 39 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Charles ranks 26,572 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,633 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 342 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
St. Charles's low wildfire rating (16th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 60.5% of St. Charles's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where St. Charles's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,044 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for St. Charles. The exposure-zones guide covers what St. Charles's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.