Santa Rosa, NM
How exposed is Santa Rosa to wildfire?
USFS scores Santa Rosa at the 88th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 1,420 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Santa Rosa at the 88th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Santa Rosa's building exposure, zone by zone
82.8% of Santa Rosa's 1,420 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 17.3% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Santa Rosa ranks
Santa Rosa's 88th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 69th ranking inside New Mexico does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 18 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Santa Rosa ranks 3,942 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,538 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 153 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
Santa Rosa's very high rating (88th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
Santa Rosa's 82.8% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,420 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Santa Rosa. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Santa Rosa, see the exposure-zones guide.