Clifton, NJ
Clifton wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Clifton lands at the 26th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 22,513 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Clifton at the 26th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Clifton rates 97.6% Minimal exposure against just 2.4% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 22,513 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 22,513 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Clifton compares
There's little gap between Clifton's 26th national percentile and its 17th percentile inside New Jersey, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Clifton ranks 23,423 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 592 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 580 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Clifton and the insurance market
At the 26th national percentile, Clifton rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 97.6% of Clifton outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Clifton's 26th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Clifton, see the exposure-zones guide.