Quemado, NM
How exposed is Quemado to wildfire?
USFS scores Quemado at the 65th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 253 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Quemado at the 65th percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
56.9% of Quemado's 253 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 43.1% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Quemado compares
Inside New Mexico, Quemado sits at just the 36th percentile even though it scores 65th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Quemado ranks 11,068 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,049 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 319 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
Quemado and the insurance market
At the 65th percentile nationally, Quemado carries the 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 Quemado
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Quemado (56.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 253 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Quemado. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Quemado, see the exposure-zones guide.