WildfireRiskFinder

Chautauqua, KS

Chautauqua, KS's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers

Very High
95thpercentile nationally

Out of every US place USFS scores, Chautauqua lands at the 95th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 131 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)

Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Chautauqua at the 96th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.

Chautauqua's building exposure, zone by zone

131Total buildings
78.6%Direct exposure
21.4%Indirect exposure
0%Minimal exposure

131 buildings are counted in Chautauqua, and 78.6% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.

How Chautauqua compares

Chautauqua's risk sits at a similar level relative to Kansas (96th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (95th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chautauqua ranks 1,543 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,662 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 27 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.

Chautauqua and the insurance market

At the 95th percentile nationally, Chautauqua 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.

Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it

Chautauqua's 78.6% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.

Where Chautauqua's figures come from

Chautauqua's 95th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chautauqua's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.