Somerset, NJ
Somerset wildfire risk explained
Somerset's 5,645 buildings earn a 28th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Somerset at the 29th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Somerset's buildings actually sit
Most of Somerset's buildings (69.5% of 5,645) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 5,645 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Somerset compares
Somerset's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (23rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (28th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Somerset ranks 22,663 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,064 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 545 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Somerset and the insurance market
Somerset's moderate wildfire rating (28th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Somerset's 69.5% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Somerset's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 5,645 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Somerset. The exposure-zones guide covers what Somerset's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.