West Long Branch, NJ
West Long Branch, NJ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
West Long Branch's 2,702 buildings earn a 54th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks West Long Branch at the 56th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
West Long Branch's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 88.2% of West Long Branch's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 11.8% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
West Long Branch against the rest of the country
West Long Branch scores 54th nationally and 62nd 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, West Long Branch ranks 14,632 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,923 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 264 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
West Long Branch and the insurance market
West Long Branch's elevated wildfire rating (54th 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
With 88.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, West Long Branch gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where West Long Branch's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind West Long Branch's 14,632-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what West Long Branch's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.