Blackwater, MO
How exposed is Blackwater to wildfire?
USFS scores Blackwater at the 53rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 142 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Blackwater at the 55th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
142 buildings are counted in Blackwater, and 68.3% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 31.7% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Blackwater against the rest of the country
Blackwater's risk sits at a similar level relative to Missouri (39th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (53rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Blackwater ranks 14,753 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,214 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 644 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
Blackwater's elevated wildfire rating (53rd 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Blackwater's 68.3% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Blackwater's 14,753-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Blackwater, see the exposure-zones guide.