Burns, WY
How exposed is Burns to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Burns at the 83rd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 275 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Burns at the 82nd percentile, close to its 83rd-percentile risk score.
Where Burns's buildings actually sit
Most of Burns's buildings (57.8%) 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.
Where Burns ranks
Inside Wyoming, Burns sits at just the 60th percentile even though it scores 83rd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Burns ranks 5,438 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,381 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wyoming alone, it ranks 77 of 192 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wyoming on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Burns
At the 83rd percentile nationally, Burns 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.
Hardening a home in Burns
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Burns (57.8% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 275 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Burns. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Burns, see the exposure-zones guide.