Columbia, NJ
Columbia, NJ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Columbia at the 38th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 103 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Columbia at the 39th national percentile — 1 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
Indirect exposure is dominant in Columbia (65.1% of 103 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 35% sit in the Direct zone.
How Columbia compares
Columbia's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (40th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (38th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Columbia ranks 19,480 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,912 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 418 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Columbia and the insurance market
Columbia's moderate wildfire rating (38th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 65.1% of Columbia'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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 103 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Columbia. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Columbia, see the exposure-zones guide.