Summit, NJ
How exposed is Summit to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Summit at the 31st national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 7,460 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Summit at the 31st national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Summit's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Summit: 55.9% of its 7,460 buildings, versus 12.3% Indirect and 31.8% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap. At 7,460 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Summit against the rest of the country
Summit's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (27th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (31st) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Summit ranks 21,654 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,290 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 509 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Summit and the insurance market
At the 31st national percentile, Summit rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Summit
Because Direct exposure dominates in Summit (55.9%), 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 7,460 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Summit. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Summit, see the exposure-zones guide.