Paterson, NJ
Paterson wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Paterson at the 20th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 17,958 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Paterson at the 20th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Paterson's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Paterson's buildings (97% of 17,958) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 17,958 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Paterson ranks
There's little gap between Paterson's 20th national percentile and its 6th 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, Paterson ranks 25,160 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 801 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 661 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Paterson and the insurance market
Paterson's moderate wildfire rating (20th 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.
Hardening a home in Paterson
With 97% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Paterson gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Paterson's figures come from
Paterson's 20th-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 Paterson's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.