Elmwood Park, NJ
Elmwood Park wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Elmwood Park at the 15th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 5,500 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Elmwood Park's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 18th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
99% of Elmwood Park's 5,500 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 1.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 5,500 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Elmwood Park ranks
Elmwood Park's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (1st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (15th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elmwood Park ranks 26,919 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,135 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 692 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Elmwood Park and the insurance market
Elmwood Park's low wildfire rating (15th 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.
Hardening a home in Elmwood Park
With 99% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Elmwood Park gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Elmwood Park's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 5,500 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Elmwood Park. The exposure-zones guide covers what Elmwood Park's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.