Cardwell, MO
Cardwell, MO's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Cardwell sits at the 3rd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 468 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cardwell at the 3rd national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Cardwell's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 79.3% of Cardwell's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 20.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Cardwell ranks
There's little gap between Cardwell's 3rd national percentile and its 3rd percentile inside Missouri, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cardwell ranks 30,644 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,921 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 1,028 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Cardwell and the insurance market
Cardwell's low rating (3rd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Cardwell
Cardwell's 79.3% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Cardwell's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Cardwell's 30,644-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cardwell's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.