Money Island, NJ
Money Island, NJ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Money Island sits at the 89th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 29 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Money Island's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 84th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 69% of Money Island's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 31% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Money Island against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Money Island's 89th national percentile and its 95th percentile inside New Jersey, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Money Island ranks 3,342 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,372 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 37 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Money Island and the insurance market
Money Island's 89th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 69% of Money Island outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Money Island's 89th-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 Money Island, see the exposure-zones guide.