West Rutland, VT
West Rutland, VT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
West Rutland sits at the 20th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,212 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (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 Rutland at the 19th percentile, close to its 20th-percentile risk score.
Where West Rutland's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 55.8% of West Rutland's 1,212 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 44.2% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How West Rutland compares
Compare West Rutland's two percentiles: 89th within Vermont, only 20th nationally — a gap of 69 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Rutland ranks 25,318 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,584 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 21 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
West Rutland and the insurance market
At the 20th national percentile, West Rutland rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
West Rutland's 55.8% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
West Rutland's 20th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond West Rutland, see the exposure-zones guide.