Colony, KS
Colony wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Colony at the 77th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 341 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Colony's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 73rd percentile nationally.
Where Colony's buildings actually sit
341 buildings are counted in Colony, and 64.5% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 35.5% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Colony ranks
Colony scores 77th nationally and 74th within Kansas — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Colony ranks 7,149 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,549 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 186 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Colony
Colony'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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Colony (64.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Colony's figures come from
Colony's 77th-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 Colony's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.