Loco Hills, NM
How exposed is Loco Hills to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Loco Hills at the 83rd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 126 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Loco Hills at the 88th national percentile — 6 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Loco Hills's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Loco Hills's buildings (50.8%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Loco Hills ranks
Loco Hills ranks lower within New Mexico (57th percentile statewide) than its 83rd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Loco Hills ranks 5,518 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,906 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 212 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Loco Hills's 83rd-percentile, very 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 50.8% of Loco Hills's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Loco Hills's figures come from
Loco Hills's 83rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Loco Hills's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.