Cape May Court House, NJ
How exposed is Cape May Court House to wildfire?
Cape May Court House's 3,011 buildings earn a 80th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Cape May Court House at the 74th percentile, close to its 80th-percentile risk score.
Cape May Court House's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 49.8% of Cape May Court House's 3,011 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 49.1% Direct and 1.1% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Cape May Court House against the rest of the country
Cape May Court House's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (85th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (80th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cape May Court House ranks 6,372 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,421 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 105 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Cape May Court House and the insurance market
Cape May Court House's 80th-percentile, 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 Cape May Court House
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Cape May Court House (49.8% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Cape May Court House's figures come from
Cape May Court House's 80th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cape May Court House's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.