Sterling, OH
Sterling wildfire risk explained
Sterling's 362 buildings earn a 10th-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 Sterling at the 10th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Sterling's building exposure, zone by zone
Sterling rates 74.3% Minimal exposure against just 25.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 362 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Sterling ranks
Sterling's 32nd-percentile standing inside Ohio outpaces its 10th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sterling ranks 28,289 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,023 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 857 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Sterling
At the 10th national percentile, Sterling 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
Even with 74.3% of Sterling 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
Sterling's 10th-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 Sterling, see the exposure-zones guide.