Mesilla, NM
How exposed is Mesilla to wildfire?
Mesilla sits at the 45th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,266 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Mesilla at the 44th percentile, close to its 45th-percentile risk score.
Mesilla's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 46.1% of Mesilla's 1,266 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 40.3% Direct and 13.6% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Mesilla against the rest of the country
Inside New Mexico, Mesilla sits at just the 11th percentile even though it scores 45th 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, Mesilla ranks 17,489 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,269 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 441 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
Mesilla's elevated rating (45th 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 ember exposure the dominant pattern in Mesilla (46.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Mesilla's 17,489-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Mesilla, see the exposure-zones guide.