Benton, AR
How exposed is Benton to wildfire?
USFS scores Benton at the 63rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 14,646 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 Benton at the 66th percentile, close to its 63rd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
56.2% of Benton's 14,646 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 26.3% Direct and 17.6% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 14,646 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Benton ranks
Benton's 63rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 47th ranking inside Arkansas does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 16 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Benton ranks 11,649 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,017 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arkansas alone, it ranks 324 of 614 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arkansas on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Benton
At the 63rd percentile nationally, Benton carries the 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
Benton's 56.2% 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.
Where Benton's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Benton's 11,649-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Benton's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.