Oconto, NE
How exposed is Oconto to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Oconto lands at the 90th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 189 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Oconto at the 86th national percentile — 5 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
76.2% of Oconto's 189 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 23.8% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Oconto compares
Oconto's risk sits at a similar level relative to Nebraska (98th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (90th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Oconto ranks 3,059 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,286 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 12 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Oconto
Oconto's 90th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 76.2% of Oconto's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Oconto's figures come from
Oconto's 90th-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 Oconto's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.