White Island Shores, MA
How exposed is White Island Shores to wildfire?
White Island Shores's 1,018 buildings earn a 36th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, White Island Shores's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 25th percentile nationally.
Where White Island Shores's buildings actually sit
1,018 buildings are counted in White Island Shores, and 84.7% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 12.7% in Direct exposure or the 2.7% rated Minimal.
White Island Shores against the rest of the country
White Island Shores's 92nd-percentile standing inside Massachusetts outpaces its 36th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, White Island Shores ranks 20,169 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,815 by building count (1 is largest). Within Massachusetts alone, it ranks 20 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
White Island Shores's moderate wildfire rating (36th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 84.7% of White Island Shores's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where White Island Shores's figures come from
White Island Shores's 36th-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 White Island Shores's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.