Thedford, NE
Thedford wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Thedford lands at the 81st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 196 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Thedford's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 80th percentile nationally.
Where Thedford's buildings actually sit
Most of Thedford's buildings (75.5%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Thedford against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Thedford's 81st national percentile and its 87th percentile inside Nebraska, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Thedford ranks 6,088 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,005 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 76 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Thedford
Thedford's 81st-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Thedford (75.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Thedford's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Thedford's 6,088-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Thedford's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.