Hempstead, NY
Hempstead, NY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Hempstead at the 25th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 9,545 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Hempstead's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 30th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
99.1% of Hempstead's 9,545 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 0.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 9,545 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Hempstead against the rest of the country
Compare Hempstead's two percentiles: 52nd within New York, only 25th nationally — a gap of 27 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hempstead ranks 23,702 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,707 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 619 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 25th national percentile, Hempstead 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
Hempstead's 99.1% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 9,545 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Hempstead. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Hempstead, see the exposure-zones guide.