Sarben, NE
Sarben, NE's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Sarben at the 79th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 65 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Sarben at the 76th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Sarben's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Sarben's 65 counted buildings, 80% 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.
How Sarben compares
Sarben scores 79th nationally and 84th within Nebraska — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sarben ranks 6,623 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,466 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 92 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Sarben's 79th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 80% of Sarben in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 65 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Sarben. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Sarben, see the exposure-zones guide.