Callao, MO
Callao wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Callao at the 64th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 251 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Callao at the 65th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Callao's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Callao (70.1% of 251 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 29.9% sit in the Direct zone.
Callao against the rest of the country
Callao scores 64th nationally and 65th within Missouri — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Callao ranks 11,441 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,108 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 370 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
Callao's 64th-percentile, 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 ember exposure the dominant pattern in Callao (70.1% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Callao's 11,441-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Callao, see the exposure-zones guide.