Montauk, NY
Montauk wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Montauk at the 17th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 4,837 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Montauk at the 15th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Montauk's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Montauk's buildings (51.6%) 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 Montauk ranks
Compare Montauk's two percentiles: 39th within New York, only 17th nationally — a gap of 23 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Montauk ranks 26,194 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,532 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 782 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Montauk
At the 17th national percentile, Montauk rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Montauk's 51.6% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Montauk's 17th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Montauk, see the exposure-zones guide.