Valparaiso, NE
How exposed is Valparaiso to wildfire?
USFS scores Valparaiso at the 76th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 412 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Valparaiso's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 70th percentile nationally.
Valparaiso's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Valparaiso's buildings (44.2% of 412) 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.
Where Valparaiso ranks
Valparaiso's risk sits at a similar level relative to Nebraska (80th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (76th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Valparaiso ranks 7,476 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,989 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 118 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Valparaiso and the insurance market
Valparaiso's 76th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 44.2% of Valparaiso outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Valparaiso's figures come from
Valparaiso's 76th-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 Valparaiso's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.