Pecos, NM
How exposed is Pecos to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Pecos at the 95th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 961 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Pecos at the 91st percentile, close to its 95th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
73.1% of Pecos's 961 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 702 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 27% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Pecos ranks
Pecos scores 95th nationally and 85th within New Mexico — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pecos ranks 1,517 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,218 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 74 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
Pecos and the insurance market
At the 95th percentile nationally, Pecos carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Pecos
Pecos's 73.1% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 961 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Pecos. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Pecos, see the exposure-zones guide.