Chamisal, NM
How exposed is Chamisal to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Chamisal at the 96th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 294 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Chamisal at the 92nd national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Chamisal's buildings actually sit
96.3% of Chamisal's 294 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 283 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 3.7% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Chamisal ranks
There's little gap between Chamisal's 96th national percentile and its 88th percentile inside New Mexico, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chamisal ranks 1,236 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,796 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 58 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
Chamisal and the insurance market
Chamisal's very high rating (96th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Chamisal's 96.3% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Chamisal's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Chamisal's 1,236-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chamisal's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.