Abilene, KS
Abilene, KS's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Abilene's 3,956 buildings earn a 72nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Abilene at the 66th national percentile — 6 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Abilene's building exposure, zone by zone
92.5% of Abilene's 3,956 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 6.5% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Abilene against the rest of the country
Abilene's risk sits at a similar level relative to Kansas (69th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (72nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Abilene ranks 8,882 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,285 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 221 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Abilene's 72nd-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
Abilene's 92.5% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,956 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Abilene. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Abilene, see the exposure-zones guide.