Wilmington, VT
Wilmington wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Wilmington lands at the 17th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 333 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wilmington at the 18th percentile, close to its 17th-percentile risk score.
Wilmington's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Wilmington: 55.6% of its 333 buildings, versus 44.4% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Wilmington compares
Compare Wilmington's two percentiles: 71st within Vermont, only 17th nationally — a gap of 54 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wilmington ranks 26,204 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,745 by building count (1 is largest). Within Vermont alone, it ranks 53 of 179 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Vermont on its state page.
Wilmington and the insurance market
Wilmington's low rating (17th 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Wilmington (55.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Wilmington's 17th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Wilmington, see the exposure-zones guide.