Gardner, KS
Gardner wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Gardner at the 50th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 7,466 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gardner's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 50th percentile nationally.
Where Gardner's buildings actually sit
Most of Gardner's buildings (88.6% of 7,466) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 7,466 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Gardner ranks
Gardner's 50th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 32nd ranking inside Kansas does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 18 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gardner ranks 15,722 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,285 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 489 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
Gardner and the insurance market
At the 50th national percentile, Gardner rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Gardner'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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 7,466 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Gardner. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Gardner, see the exposure-zones guide.