Wildewood, MD
How exposed is Wildewood to wildfire?
Wildewood sits at the 67th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,748 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 Wildewood at the 67th percentile, close to its 67th-percentile risk score.
Wildewood's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 54.1% of Wildewood's 1,748 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 45.9% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Wildewood ranks
Compare Wildewood's two percentiles: 91st within Maryland, only 67th nationally — a gap of 24 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wildewood ranks 10,560 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,234 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 51 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Wildewood
At the 67th percentile nationally, Wildewood carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Wildewood
Because 54.1% of Wildewood'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 Wildewood's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,748 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Wildewood. The exposure-zones guide covers what Wildewood's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.