Farmington, NM
How exposed is Farmington to wildfire?
USFS scores Farmington at the 50th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 19,975 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Farmington at the 49th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Farmington's building exposure, zone by zone
19,975 buildings are counted in Farmington, and 60% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 11.5% in Direct exposure or the 28.5% rated Minimal. At 19,975 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Farmington ranks
Farmington's 50th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 16th ranking inside New Mexico does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 34 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Farmington ranks 15,760 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 705 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 415 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
Farmington and the insurance market
Farmington's elevated wildfire rating (50th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Farmington's 60% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Farmington's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 19,975 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Farmington. The exposure-zones guide covers what Farmington's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.