Oakland, NJ
Oakland wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Oakland at the 41st national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 4,886 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Oakland at the 39th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Oakland's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Oakland's 4,886 counted buildings, 66.6% carry Direct exposure and only 0.5% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Oakland against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Oakland's 41st national percentile and its 44th 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, Oakland ranks 18,689 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,503 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 390 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Oakland and the insurance market
Oakland's elevated rating (41st percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Oakland (66.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 4,886 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Oakland. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Oakland, see the exposure-zones guide.