Wheaton, MD
Wheaton, MD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Wheaton at the 9th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 11,922 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wheaton at the 9th percentile, close to its 9th-percentile risk score.
Where Wheaton's buildings actually sit
Most of Wheaton's buildings (68.7% of 11,922) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 11,922 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Wheaton against the rest of the country
Wheaton scores 9th nationally and 3rd within Maryland — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wheaton ranks 28,714 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,310 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 512 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Wheaton's low rating (9th 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 68.7% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Wheaton gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 11,922 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Wheaton. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Wheaton, see the exposure-zones guide.