Gonzales, TX
Gonzales wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Gonzales at the 69th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 3,903 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gonzales at the 70th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Gonzales's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 82.7% of Gonzales's 3,903 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 17.3% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Gonzales against the rest of the country
Gonzales ranks lower within Texas (28th percentile statewide) than its 69th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gonzales ranks 9,847 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,337 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 1,289 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
Gonzales's 69th-percentile, 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.
Hardening a home in Gonzales
Because 82.7% of Gonzales'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.
Where Gonzales's figures come from
Gonzales's 69th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Gonzales's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.