Laurel Lake, NJ
Laurel Lake wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Laurel Lake at the 82nd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 990 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Laurel Lake at the 79th percentile, close to its 82nd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Laurel Lake: 62.9% of its 990 buildings, versus 36.9% Indirect and 0.2% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Laurel Lake compares
Laurel Lake's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (86th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (82nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Laurel Lake ranks 5,771 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,005 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 98 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
At the 82nd percentile nationally, Laurel Lake carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Laurel Lake (62.9%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Laurel Lake's 82nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Laurel Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.