Tortugas, NM
Tortugas wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Tortugas at the 27th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 316 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Tortugas at the 25th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
62.7% of Tortugas's 316 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Tortugas ranks
Inside New Mexico, Tortugas sits at just the 1st percentile even though it scores 27th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Tortugas ranks 22,943 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,214 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 489 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 27th national percentile, Tortugas rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Tortugas's 62.7% 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 Tortugas's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 316 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Tortugas. The exposure-zones guide covers what Tortugas's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.