Golden, MS
How exposed is Golden to wildfire?
USFS scores Golden at the 56th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 175 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Golden at the 59th percentile, close to its 56th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Golden (65.1% of 175 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 34.9% sit in the Direct zone.
How Golden compares
Inside Mississippi, Golden sits at just the 26th percentile even though it scores 56th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Golden ranks 13,867 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,824 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 311 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Golden and the insurance market
At the 56th national percentile, Golden rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Golden
Because 65.1% of Golden's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Golden's 13,867-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Golden, see the exposure-zones guide.