De Kalb, MO
De Kalb, MO's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores De Kalb at the 56th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 172 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts De Kalb at the 57th percentile, close to its 56th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of De Kalb's 172 counted buildings, 57% carry Direct exposure and only 14.5% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How De Kalb compares
There's little gap between De Kalb's 56th national percentile and its 44th percentile inside Missouri, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, De Kalb ranks 13,961 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,944 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 596 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
De Kalb and the insurance market
De Kalb's elevated wildfire rating (56th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in De Kalb (57%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where De Kalb's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind De Kalb's 13,961-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what De Kalb's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.