Alta Vista, KS
How exposed is Alta Vista to wildfire?
USFS scores Alta Vista at the 94th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 337 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Alta Vista's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 90th percentile nationally.
Where Alta Vista's buildings actually sit
Most of Alta Vista's buildings (88.1%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Alta Vista compares
Alta Vista's risk sits at a similar level relative to Kansas (94th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (94th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Alta Vista ranks 2,046 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,657 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 40 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
At the 94th percentile nationally, Alta Vista carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Alta Vista's 88.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Alta Vista's 94th-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 Alta Vista, see the exposure-zones guide.