Wanaque, NJ
Wanaque wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Wanaque at the 44th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 3,455 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 Wanaque at the 43rd percentile, close to its 44th-percentile risk score.
Where Wanaque's buildings actually sit
66.4% of Wanaque's 3,455 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 33.5% Direct and 0.2% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Wanaque compares
Wanaque scores 44th nationally and 49th 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, Wanaque ranks 17,554 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,838 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 358 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
Wanaque's elevated wildfire rating (44th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 66.4% of Wanaque's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Wanaque's 44th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Wanaque, see the exposure-zones guide.