Amherst, NH
How exposed is Amherst to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Amherst lands at the 36th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 292 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Amherst at the 31st national percentile — 5 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Amherst's buildings (57.9%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Amherst ranks
Amherst's 100th-percentile standing inside New Hampshire 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, Amherst ranks 20,075 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,854 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Hampshire alone, it ranks 1 of 100 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Hampshire on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Amherst'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.
Hardening a home in Amherst
Amherst's 57.9% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Amherst's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Amherst's 20,075-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Amherst's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.