Vineyard Haven, MA
How exposed is Vineyard Haven to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Vineyard Haven at the 20th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 1,932 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Vineyard Haven at the 17th percentile, close to its 20th-percentile risk score.
Where Vineyard Haven's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 78.5% of Vineyard Haven's 1,932 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 17.7% Direct and 3.8% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Vineyard Haven against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Vineyard Haven's 20th national percentile and its 21st percentile inside Massachusetts, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Vineyard Haven ranks 25,369 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,672 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 196 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Vineyard Haven's low rating (20th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Vineyard Haven (78.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Vineyard Haven's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,932 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Vineyard Haven. The exposure-zones guide covers what Vineyard Haven's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.