Preakness, NJ
Preakness, NJ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Preakness's 5,317 buildings earn a 28th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Preakness's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 27th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
41% of Preakness's 5,317 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 23.4% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 5,317 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Preakness ranks
Preakness's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (21st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (28th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Preakness ranks 22,820 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,249 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 555 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Preakness's moderate rating (28th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Preakness
Preakness's 41% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Preakness's 22,820-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Preakness, see the exposure-zones guide.