Watsessing, NJ
Watsessing wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Watsessing at the 20th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 1,474 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Watsessing at the 22nd percentile, close to its 20th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
98.3% of Watsessing's 1,474 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 1.7% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Watsessing ranks
There's little gap between Watsessing's 20th national percentile and its 5th percentile inside New Jersey, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Watsessing ranks 25,311 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,288 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 664 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Watsessing and the insurance market
At the 20th national percentile, Watsessing rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Watsessing
Watsessing's 98.3% 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 Watsessing's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,474 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Watsessing. The exposure-zones guide covers what Watsessing's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.