Pagosa Springs, CO
How exposed is Pagosa Springs to wildfire?
Pagosa Springs's 1,263 buildings earn a 89th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Pagosa Springs's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 87th percentile nationally.
Pagosa Springs's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 63.4% of Pagosa Springs's 1,263 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 36.6% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Pagosa Springs against the rest of the country
Inside Colorado, Pagosa Springs sits at just the 73rd percentile even though it scores 89th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pagosa Springs ranks 3,494 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,276 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 131 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Pagosa Springs
Pagosa Springs's 89th-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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Pagosa Springs (63.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Pagosa Springs's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,263 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Pagosa Springs. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pagosa Springs's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.