Hayes Center, NE
Hayes Center, NE's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Hayes Center sits at the 60th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 209 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Hayes Center's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 59th percentile nationally.
Hayes Center's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 79.4% of Hayes Center's 209 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 20.6% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Hayes Center ranks
There's little gap between Hayes Center's 60th national percentile and its 51st percentile inside Nebraska, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hayes Center ranks 12,578 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,525 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 284 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Hayes Center's 60th-percentile, 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.
Hardening a home in Hayes Center
Hayes Center's 79.4% 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 Hayes Center's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 209 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Hayes Center. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hayes Center's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.