Aztec, NM
Aztec wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Aztec at the 54th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 3,367 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Aztec at the 52nd percentile, close to its 54th-percentile risk score.
Where Aztec's buildings actually sit
Most of Aztec's buildings (84.2%) 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 Aztec ranks
Inside New Mexico, Aztec sits at just the 20th percentile even though it scores 54th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Aztec ranks 14,597 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,961 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 395 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Aztec
Aztec's elevated rating (54th 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
Aztec's 84.2% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,367 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Aztec. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Aztec, see the exposure-zones guide.