South Dennis, NJ
South Dennis, NJ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores South Dennis at the 84th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 893 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts South Dennis at the 81st percentile, close to its 84th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in South Dennis: 97.3% of its 893 buildings, versus 2.7% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where South Dennis ranks
There's little gap between South Dennis's 84th national percentile and its 88th percentile inside New Jersey, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Dennis ranks 5,080 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,783 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 85 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
South Dennis and the insurance market
South Dennis's very high rating (84th 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.
Hardening a home in South Dennis
Because Direct exposure dominates in South Dennis (97.3%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
South Dennis's 84th-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 South Dennis, see the exposure-zones guide.