Continental Divide, NM
How exposed is Continental Divide to wildfire?
Continental Divide's 180 buildings earn a 77th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Continental Divide at the 70th percentile, close to its 77th-percentile risk score.
Continental Divide's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 85.6% of Continental Divide's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 14.4% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 154 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Continental Divide against the rest of the country
Continental Divide ranks lower within New Mexico (49th percentile statewide) than its 77th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Continental Divide ranks 7,349 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,638 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 252 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Continental Divide's 77th-percentile, 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 Continental Divide
With 85.6% of Continental Divide 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Continental Divide's 7,349-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Continental Divide, see the exposure-zones guide.