Westfield, MA
Westfield wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Westfield at the 29th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 16,714 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Westfield's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 27th percentile nationally.
Where Westfield's buildings actually sit
54% of Westfield's 16,714 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 41.3% Direct and 4.8% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 16,714 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Westfield against the rest of the country
Compare Westfield's two percentiles: 73rd within Massachusetts, only 29th nationally — a gap of 43 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Westfield ranks 22,314 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 866 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 69 of 248 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Massachusetts on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Westfield's moderate rating (29th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Westfield (54% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Westfield's figures come from
Westfield's 29th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Westfield's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.