Chesilhurst, NJ
How exposed is Chesilhurst to wildfire?
Chesilhurst's 671 buildings earn a 83rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Chesilhurst at the 82nd percentile, close to its 83rd-percentile risk score.
Where Chesilhurst's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 81.7% of Chesilhurst's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 18.3% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 548 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Where Chesilhurst ranks
Chesilhurst's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (87th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (83rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chesilhurst ranks 5,455 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,960 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 92 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
Chesilhurst's 83rd-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 Chesilhurst
Chesilhurst's 81.7% 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.
More on how this number was built
Chesilhurst's 83rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Chesilhurst, see the exposure-zones guide.