West Dennis, MA
How exposed is West Dennis to wildfire?
USFS scores West Dennis at the 23rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 3,062 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 West Dennis at the 16th percentile, close to its 23rd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
West Dennis rates 97.3% Minimal exposure against just 2.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 3,062 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
West Dennis against the rest of the country
West Dennis's risk sits at a similar level relative to Massachusetts (34th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (23rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Dennis ranks 24,295 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,340 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 165 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
West Dennis and the insurance market
West Dennis's moderate rating (23rd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 97.3% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, West Dennis gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where West Dennis's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,062 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for West Dennis. The exposure-zones guide covers what West Dennis's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.