Garden City, KS
How exposed is Garden City to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Garden City at the 50th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 10,257 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Garden City's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 48th percentile nationally.
Where Garden City's buildings actually sit
88.6% of Garden City's 10,257 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 4% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 10,257 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Garden City ranks
Garden City ranks lower within Kansas (33rd percentile statewide) than its 50th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Garden City ranks 15,658 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,563 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 484 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Garden City
Garden City's elevated wildfire rating (50th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Garden City's 88.6% 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 Garden City's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 10,257 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Garden City. The exposure-zones guide covers what Garden City's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.