Lakewood, NJ
Lakewood wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Lakewood at the 71st national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 6,947 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Lakewood at the 69th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 41.1% of Lakewood's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 20.4% Direct and 38.5% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 6,947 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Lakewood against the rest of the country
Lakewood's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (80th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (71st) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lakewood ranks 9,175 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,492 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 142 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Lakewood's high rating (71st percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Lakewood
Even with 41.1% of Lakewood 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.
Where Lakewood's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,947 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Lakewood. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lakewood's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.