DeSoto, TX
DeSoto wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts DeSoto at the 66th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 18,840 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks DeSoto at the 65th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 82.4% of DeSoto's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 16.5% Direct and 1.1% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 18,840 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
DeSoto against the rest of the country
DeSoto ranks lower within Texas (23rd percentile statewide) than its 66th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, DeSoto ranks 10,666 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 755 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 1,377 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
DeSoto and the insurance market
DeSoto's high rating (66th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in DeSoto
DeSoto's 82.4% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where DeSoto's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 18,840 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for DeSoto. The exposure-zones guide covers what DeSoto's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.