Carlton, KS
How exposed is Carlton to wildfire?
Carlton's 60 buildings earn a 77th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Carlton at the 68th national percentile — 9 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Carlton's buildings actually sit
Carlton rates 70% Minimal exposure against just 30% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 60 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Carlton against the rest of the country
Carlton's risk sits at a similar level relative to Kansas (75th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (77th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Carlton ranks 7,117 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,647 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 182 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
Carlton and the insurance market
Carlton's 77th-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.
Hardening a home in Carlton
Even with 70% of Carlton outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Carlton's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 60 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Carlton. The exposure-zones guide covers what Carlton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.