Ponderosa, NM
Ponderosa wildfire risk explained
Ponderosa's 357 buildings earn a 92nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ponderosa's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 88th percentile nationally.
Where Ponderosa's buildings actually sit
100% of Ponderosa's 357 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 357 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Ponderosa against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Ponderosa's 92nd national percentile and its 79th percentile inside New Mexico, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ponderosa ranks 2,615 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,137 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 106 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Ponderosa's 92nd-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 100% of Ponderosa in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Ponderosa's 92nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Ponderosa, see the exposure-zones guide.