Desha, AR
Desha wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Desha at the 75th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 517 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Desha's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 79th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Desha's 517 counted buildings, 94% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Desha compares
Desha scores 75th nationally and 64th within Arkansas — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Desha ranks 7,933 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,066 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arkansas alone, it ranks 223 of 614 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arkansas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Desha's 75th-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 Desha
With 94% of Desha in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Desha's figures come from
Desha's 75th-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 Desha's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.