Mullen, NE
How exposed is Mullen to wildfire?
Mullen sits at the 77th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 478 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Mullen's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 76th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 89.8% of Mullen's 478 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 10.3% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Mullen compares
There's little gap between Mullen's 77th national percentile and its 80th percentile inside Nebraska, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mullen ranks 7,347 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,747 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 114 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Mullen and the insurance market
Mullen's 77th-percentile, 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.
Hardening a home in Mullen
Mullen's 89.8% 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.
Where Mullen's figures come from
Mullen's 77th-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 Mullen's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.