Fortescue, NJ
How exposed is Fortescue to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Fortescue lands at the 91st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 367 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Fortescue's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 87th percentile nationally.
Fortescue's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Fortescue's buildings (84.2%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Fortescue ranks
Fortescue scores 91st nationally and 97th within New Jersey — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fortescue ranks 2,710 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,927 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 25 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Fortescue and the insurance market
Fortescue's 91st-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Fortescue (84.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 367 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Fortescue. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Fortescue, see the exposure-zones guide.