Cologne, NJ
Cologne wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Cologne lands at the 83rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 613 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cologne at the 81st national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Cologne's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 50.4% of Cologne's 613 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 49.6% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Cologne compares
Cologne'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, Cologne ranks 5,422 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,659 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 91 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cologne
Cologne's very high rating (83rd 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
Because 50.4% of Cologne's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Cologne'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 indirect exposure implies beyond Cologne, see the exposure-zones guide.