Chimayo, NM
How exposed is Chimayo to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Chimayo at the 83rd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 2,474 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Chimayo at the 79th percentile, close to its 83rd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 84.8% of Chimayo's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 15.2% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 2,098 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Where Chimayo ranks
Inside New Mexico, Chimayo sits at just the 59th percentile even though it scores 83rd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chimayo ranks 5,298 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,349 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 205 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Chimayo
Chimayo'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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 84.8% of Chimayo in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Chimayo's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,474 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Chimayo. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chimayo's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.