Fernwood, MS
Fernwood wildfire risk explained
Fernwood's 254 buildings earn a 81st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Fernwood at the 84th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Fernwood's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Fernwood: 66.5% of its 254 buildings, versus 33.5% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Fernwood against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Fernwood's 81st national percentile and its 82nd percentile inside Mississippi, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fernwood ranks 6,084 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,019 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 76 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Fernwood and the insurance market
Fernwood's 81st-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Fernwood (66.5%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Fernwood's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Fernwood's 6,084-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Fernwood's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.