Sandia, TX
How exposed is Sandia to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Sandia at the 88th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 253 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Sandia's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 89th percentile nationally.
Sandia's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Sandia's 253 counted buildings, 59.7% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Sandia ranks
Sandia's risk sits at a similar level relative to Texas (80th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (88th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sandia ranks 3,824 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,063 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 362 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 88th percentile nationally, Sandia carries the very 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Sandia's 59.7% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Sandia's 88th-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 Sandia, see the exposure-zones guide.