Browns Mills, NJ
Browns Mills, NJ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Browns Mills at the 92nd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 3,886 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Browns Mills's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 91st percentile nationally.
Where Browns Mills's buildings actually sit
Most of Browns Mills's buildings (58.4%) 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.
Browns Mills against the rest of the country
Browns Mills scores 92nd nationally and 97th within New Jersey — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Browns Mills ranks 2,652 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,354 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 22 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
Browns Mills's 92nd-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Browns Mills (58.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Browns Mills's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Browns Mills's 2,652-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Browns Mills's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.