Shelter Island Heights, NY
How exposed is Shelter Island Heights to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Shelter Island Heights lands at the 29th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 2,173 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Shelter Island Heights at the 28th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
72.9% of Shelter Island Heights's 2,173 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,584 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 17.7% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 9.4% are Minimal.
Shelter Island Heights against the rest of the country
Shelter Island Heights's 61st-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 29th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shelter Island Heights ranks 22,321 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,010 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 498 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 29th national percentile, Shelter Island Heights rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Shelter Island Heights's 72.9% 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
Shelter Island Heights's 29th-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 Shelter Island Heights, see the exposure-zones guide.