Orchard, CO
Orchard wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Orchard at the 74th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 74 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Orchard's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 74th percentile nationally.
Orchard's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Orchard: 66.2% of its 74 buildings, versus 33.8% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Orchard against the rest of the country
Orchard ranks lower within Colorado (43rd percentile statewide) than its 74th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Orchard ranks 8,346 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,119 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 273 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
Orchard and the insurance market
Orchard's 74th-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 Orchard
Because Direct exposure dominates in Orchard (66.2%), 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
Orchard's 74th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Orchard, see the exposure-zones guide.