Exeter, NH
Exeter, NH's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Exeter lands at the 27th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 3,693 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Exeter at the 22nd percentile, close to its 27th-percentile risk score.
Exeter's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 81.7% of Exeter's 3,693 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 18.3% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Exeter compares
Within New Hampshire, Exeter ranks higher (85th percentile) than it does nationally (27th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Exeter ranks 23,169 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,538 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Hampshire alone, it ranks 16 of 100 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Hampshire on its state page.
Exeter and the insurance market
At the 27th national percentile, Exeter rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 81.7% of Exeter'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 3,693 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Exeter. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Exeter, see the exposure-zones guide.