Panther Valley, NJ
How exposed is Panther Valley to wildfire?
Panther Valley's 885 buildings earn a 41st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Panther Valley at the 40th percentile, close to its 41st-percentile risk score.
Where Panther Valley's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Panther Valley: 59.9% of its 885 buildings, versus 40.1% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Panther Valley ranks
There's little gap between Panther Valley's 41st national percentile and its 45th 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, Panther Valley ranks 18,470 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,862 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 385 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Panther Valley and the insurance market
Panther Valley's elevated wildfire rating (41st percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Panther Valley's 59.9% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Panther Valley's figures come from
Panther Valley's 41st-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 Panther Valley's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.