West Laurel, MD
West Laurel wildfire risk explained
West Laurel's 1,765 buildings earn a 19th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (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 Laurel at the 18th percentile, close to its 19th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of West Laurel's 1,765 counted buildings, 54.1% carry Direct exposure and only 0.1% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where West Laurel ranks
There's little gap between West Laurel's 19th national percentile and its 24th percentile inside Maryland, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Laurel ranks 25,526 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,178 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 404 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in West Laurel
At the 19th national percentile, West Laurel rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 54.1% of West Laurel in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,765 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for West Laurel. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond West Laurel, see the exposure-zones guide.