Imperial, NE
Imperial wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Imperial at the 54th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,442 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Imperial at the 50th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Imperial's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Imperial (59.3% of 1,442 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 9.2% sit in the Direct zone.
How Imperial compares
Imperial's risk sits at a similar level relative to Nebraska (41st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (54th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Imperial ranks 14,503 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,420 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 346 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Imperial and the insurance market
Imperial's elevated wildfire rating (54th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Imperial's 59.3% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,442 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Imperial. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Imperial, see the exposure-zones guide.