Birch Tree, MO
Birch Tree wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Birch Tree at the 80th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 433 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Birch Tree at the 83rd national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Birch Tree's buildings actually sit
433 buildings are counted in Birch Tree, and 53.6% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 46.4% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Birch Tree ranks
Within Missouri, Birch Tree ranks higher (97th percentile) than it does nationally (80th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Birch Tree ranks 6,336 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,583 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 32 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 80th percentile nationally, Birch Tree 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.
Hardening a home in Birch Tree
Because 53.6% of Birch Tree's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Birch Tree's 6,336-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Birch Tree, see the exposure-zones guide.