Union Beach, NJ
How exposed is Union Beach to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Union Beach at the 62nd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,477 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Union Beach at the 57th percentile, close to its 62nd-percentile risk score.
Union Beach's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Union Beach's buildings (97.7% of 2,477) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
How Union Beach compares
Union Beach scores 62nd nationally and 71st within New Jersey — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Union Beach ranks 12,138 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,346 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 206 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Union Beach's 62nd-percentile, 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 97.7% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Union Beach gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Union Beach's figures come from
Union Beach's 62nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Union Beach's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.