Beach Haven, NJ
Beach Haven, NJ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Beach Haven at the 74th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,360 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Beach Haven at the 61st national percentile — 13 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
100% of Beach Haven's 2,360 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 0% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Beach Haven compares
There's little gap between Beach Haven's 74th national percentile and its 82nd percentile inside New Jersey, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Beach Haven ranks 8,164 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,588 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 126 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Beach Haven's 74th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With 100% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Beach Haven gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Beach Haven's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,360 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Beach Haven. The exposure-zones guide covers what Beach Haven's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.