Stepping Stone, CO
Stepping Stone, CO's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Stepping Stone at the 84th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 953 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Stepping Stone's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 84th percentile nationally.
Stepping Stone's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Stepping Stone (84.6% of 953 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 15.4% sit in the Direct zone.
How Stepping Stone compares
Stepping Stone's 84th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 63rd ranking inside Colorado does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 20 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Stepping Stone ranks 5,099 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,284 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 174 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 84th percentile nationally, Stepping Stone carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Stepping Stone
Stepping Stone's 84.6% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Stepping Stone's 5,099-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Stepping Stone, see the exposure-zones guide.