Branch, AR
Branch wildfire risk explained
Branch sits at the 81st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 284 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Branch at the 85th percentile, close to its 81st-percentile risk score.
Branch's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Branch's 284 counted buildings, 89.1% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Branch ranks
There's little gap between Branch's 81st national percentile and its 82nd percentile inside Arkansas, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Branch ranks 6,103 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,048 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arkansas alone, it ranks 108 of 614 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arkansas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Branch's 81st-percentile, very 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 89.1% of Branch in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Branch's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Branch's 6,103-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Branch's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.