Waterbury Center, VT
How exposed is Waterbury Center to wildfire?
USFS scores Waterbury Center at the 14th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 222 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Waterbury Center's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 15th percentile nationally.
Where Waterbury Center's buildings actually sit
Of Waterbury Center's 222 counted buildings, 83.3% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Waterbury Center compares
Waterbury Center's 35th-percentile standing inside Vermont outpaces its 14th 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, Waterbury Center ranks 26,994 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,065 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 116 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Waterbury Center's low rating (14th 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Waterbury Center (83.3%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 222 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Waterbury Center. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Waterbury Center, see the exposure-zones guide.