Melville, NY
How exposed is Melville to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Melville lands at the 28th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 6,914 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Melville at the 29th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
6,914 buildings are counted in Melville, and 61.4% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 29.6% in Direct exposure or the 9% rated Minimal. At 6,914 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Melville ranks
Melville's 59th-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 28th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Melville ranks 22,572 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,504 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 524 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Melville's moderate rating (28th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Melville
Because 61.4% of Melville'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 Melville's figures come from
Melville's 28th-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 Melville's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.