Blanca, CO
Blanca wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Blanca at the 38th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 268 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Blanca at the 37th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Blanca's building exposure, zone by zone
80.2% of Blanca's 268 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 19.8% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Blanca ranks
Inside Colorado, Blanca sits at just the 7th percentile even though it scores 38th 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, Blanca ranks 19,466 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,557 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 438 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
Blanca and the insurance market
At the 38th national percentile, Blanca rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 80.2% of Blanca's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Blanca's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 268 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Blanca. The exposure-zones guide covers what Blanca's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.