Burchard, NE
Burchard, NE's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Burchard lands at the 89th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 113 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Burchard at the 83rd percentile, close to its 89th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Burchard (73.5% of 113 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 26.6% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Burchard ranks
Burchard's risk sits at a similar level relative to Nebraska (97th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (89th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Burchard ranks 3,504 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,511 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 19 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Burchard and the insurance market
Burchard's 89th-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 Burchard (73.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Burchard's 3,504-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Burchard, see the exposure-zones guide.