St. Johnsbury, VT
St. Johnsbury wildfire risk explained
St. Johnsbury sits at the 13th 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 2,636 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. Johnsbury at the 13th percentile, close to its 13th-percentile risk score.
Where St. Johnsbury's buildings actually sit
Most of St. Johnsbury's buildings (61.3%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where St. Johnsbury ranks
There's little gap between St. Johnsbury's 13th national percentile and its 17th percentile inside Vermont, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Johnsbury ranks 27,528 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,041 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 148 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in St. Johnsbury
St. Johnsbury's low wildfire rating (13th 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
St. Johnsbury's 61.3% 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.
Where St. Johnsbury's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind St. Johnsbury's 27,528-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what St. Johnsbury's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.