Picacho Hills, NM
Picacho Hills wildfire risk explained
Picacho Hills's 917 buildings earn a 50th-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 Picacho Hills at the 50th percentile, close to its 50th-percentile risk score.
Picacho Hills's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Picacho Hills (68.7% of 917 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 31.3% sit in the Direct zone.
How Picacho Hills compares
Picacho Hills's 50th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 17th ranking inside New Mexico does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 34 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Picacho Hills ranks 15,666 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,580 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 412 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
Picacho Hills and the insurance market
Picacho Hills's elevated wildfire rating (50th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Picacho Hills's 68.7% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 917 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Picacho Hills. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Picacho Hills, see the exposure-zones guide.