Fire Island, NY
Fire Island, NY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Fire Island lands at the 43rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 3,446 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Fire Island at the 37th national percentile — 6 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Fire Island's buildings actually sit
Only 5.3% of Fire Island's 3,446 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 94.7% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Fire Island ranks
Compare Fire Island's two percentiles: 88th within New York, only 43rd nationally — a gap of 45 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fire Island ranks 17,968 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,850 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 153 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Fire Island
Fire Island's elevated rating (43rd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 94.7% of Fire Island outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Fire Island's 43rd-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 Fire Island, see the exposure-zones guide.