McCool Junction, NE
How exposed is McCool Junction to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, McCool Junction lands at the 36th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 340 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks McCool Junction at the 32nd national percentile — 4 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
89.4% of McCool Junction's 340 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 10.6% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
McCool Junction against the rest of the country
Inside Nebraska, McCool Junction sits at just the 20th percentile even though it scores 36th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, McCool Junction ranks 20,233 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,577 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 468 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
McCool Junction and the insurance market
McCool Junction's moderate rating (36th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 89.4% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, McCool Junction gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
McCool Junction's 36th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond McCool Junction, see the exposure-zones guide.