Downs, KS
How exposed is Downs to wildfire?
Downs's 888 buildings earn a 35th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Downs at the 29th national percentile — 5 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Downs's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 96.5% of Downs's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 3.5% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Downs against the rest of the country
Downs ranks lower within Kansas (12th percentile statewide) than its 35th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Downs ranks 20,635 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,832 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 634 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
Downs and the insurance market
Downs's moderate wildfire rating (35th 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.
Hardening a home in Downs
Even with 96.5% of Downs outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Downs's 35th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Downs, see the exposure-zones guide.