Wakefield, MI
Wakefield wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Wakefield at the 10th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 1,470 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Wakefield at the 10th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Wakefield's buildings actually sit
1,470 buildings are counted in Wakefield, and 52.6% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0.5% rated Minimal.
Where Wakefield ranks
Compare Wakefield's two percentiles: 34th within Michigan, only 10th nationally — a gap of 24 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wakefield ranks 28,375 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,311 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 493 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Wakefield
Wakefield's low wildfire rating (10th 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
Wakefield's 52.6% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Wakefield's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,470 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Wakefield. The exposure-zones guide covers what Wakefield's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.