Amherst, WI
How exposed is Amherst to wildfire?
Amherst's 576 buildings earn a 26th-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, Amherst's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 25th percentile nationally.
Amherst's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 28.8% of Amherst's 576 buildings carry Direct exposure and 25.5% carry Indirect; the remaining 45.7% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How Amherst compares
Within Wisconsin, Amherst ranks higher (51st percentile) than it does nationally (26th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Amherst ranks 23,497 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,170 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 399 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Amherst and the insurance market
At the 26th national percentile, Amherst rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Amherst
Amherst's 45.7% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Amherst's figures come from
Amherst's 26th-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 Amherst's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.