Raritan, NJ
How exposed is Raritan to wildfire?
USFS scores Raritan at the 25th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 2,409 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 Raritan at the 26th percentile, close to its 25th-percentile risk score.
Raritan's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 73.4% of Raritan's 2,409 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 8.3% Direct and 18.3% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Raritan ranks
Raritan scores 25th nationally and 15th within New Jersey — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Raritan ranks 23,699 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,496 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 593 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Raritan
Raritan's moderate rating (25th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 73.4% of Raritan's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Raritan's figures come from
Raritan's 25th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Raritan's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.