Towson, MD
Towson wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Towson at the 11th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 12,366 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Towson at the 11th percentile, close to its 11th-percentile risk score.
Where Towson's buildings actually sit
55.3% of Towson's 12,366 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 42.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 12,366 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Towson against the rest of the country
Towson's risk sits at a similar level relative to Maryland (7th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (11th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Towson ranks 27,986 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,248 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 494 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Towson's low wildfire rating (11th 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.
Hardening a home in Towson
With 55.3% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Towson 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
Towson's 11th-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 Towson, see the exposure-zones guide.