Derby, CO
Derby wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Derby at the 72nd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 3,379 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Derby's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 72nd percentile nationally.
Where Derby's buildings actually sit
Only 0.7% of Derby's 3,379 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 99.4% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Derby against the rest of the country
Derby ranks lower within Colorado (40th percentile statewide) than its 72nd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Derby ranks 8,816 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,945 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 284 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Derby
Derby's 72nd-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 Derby
Derby's 99.4% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Derby's 72nd-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 Derby, see the exposure-zones guide.