Broken Bow, NE
How exposed is Broken Bow to wildfire?
Broken Bow sits at the 86th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 2,162 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Broken Bow's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 81st percentile nationally.
Where Broken Bow's buildings actually sit
2,162 buildings are counted in Broken Bow, and 95.1% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 2.6% in Direct exposure or the 2.3% rated Minimal.
How Broken Bow compares
Broken Bow scores 86th nationally and 94th within Nebraska — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Broken Bow ranks 4,345 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,038 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 36 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Broken Bow and the insurance market
Broken Bow's 86th-percentile, very 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 95.1% of Broken Bow'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 Broken Bow's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Broken Bow's 4,345-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Broken Bow's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.