Des Moines, NM
How exposed is Des Moines to wildfire?
Des Moines sits at the 91st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 193 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Des Moines at the 89th percentile, close to its 91st-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Des Moines's 193 counted buildings, 56% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Des Moines compares
There's little gap between Des Moines's 91st national percentile and its 77th percentile inside New Mexico, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Des Moines ranks 2,931 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,128 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 117 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
Des Moines and the insurance market
Des Moines's very high rating (91st 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.
Hardening a home in Des Moines
With 56% of Des Moines 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 193 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Des Moines. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Des Moines, see the exposure-zones guide.