West Hempstead, NY
West Hempstead wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts West Hempstead at the 27th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 6,422 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, West Hempstead's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 31st percentile nationally.
Where West Hempstead's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 96.1% of West Hempstead's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 3.9% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 6,422 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How West Hempstead compares
West Hempstead's 55th-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 27th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Hempstead ranks 23,173 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,700 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 581 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
West Hempstead and the insurance market
At the 27th national percentile, West Hempstead rates moderate 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 West Hempstead
Even with 96.1% of West Hempstead 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind West Hempstead's 23,173-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond West Hempstead, see the exposure-zones guide.