Callaway, NE
Callaway wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Callaway at the 84th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 493 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Callaway's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 78th percentile nationally.
Where Callaway's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 91.7% of Callaway's 493 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 8.3% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Callaway compares
There's little gap between Callaway's 84th national percentile and its 92nd percentile inside Nebraska, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Callaway ranks 4,921 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,475 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 47 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Callaway's 84th-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.
Hardening a home in Callaway
Because 91.7% of Callaway'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 Callaway's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 493 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Callaway. The exposure-zones guide covers what Callaway's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.