Shelter Island, NY
Shelter Island, NY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Shelter Island lands at the 30th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 1,653 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Shelter Island at the 29th percentile, close to its 30th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Shelter Island: 85.5% of its 1,653 buildings, versus 12.5% Indirect and 2% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Shelter Island compares
Within New York, Shelter Island ranks higher (64th percentile) than it does nationally (30th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shelter Island ranks 22,129 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,587 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 474 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Shelter Island
Shelter Island's moderate rating (30th 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
Shelter Island's 85.5% 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.
Where Shelter Island's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Shelter Island's 22,129-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Shelter Island's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.