El Refugio, TX
El Refugio, TX's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts El Refugio at the 85th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 153 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks El Refugio at the 84th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where El Refugio's buildings actually sit
Of El Refugio's 153 counted buildings, 54.3% carry Direct exposure and only 1.3% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
El Refugio against the rest of the country
El Refugio's risk sits at a similar level relative to Texas (73rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (85th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, El Refugio ranks 4,737 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,777 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 476 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
El Refugio's 85th-percentile, very 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 54.3% of El Refugio 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 El Refugio's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind El Refugio's 4,737-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what El Refugio's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.