Pender, NE
How exposed is Pender to wildfire?
USFS scores Pender at the 59th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 737 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Pender at the 53rd national percentile — 5 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Pender's buildings actually sit
93.2% of Pender's 737 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 6.8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Pender compares
Pender scores 59th nationally and 48th within Nebraska — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pender ranks 12,985 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,247 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 304 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Pender
Pender's elevated wildfire rating (59th 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
With 93.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Pender gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Pender's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 737 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Pender. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pender's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.