Gypsum, CO
How exposed is Gypsum to wildfire?
Gypsum's 2,461 buildings earn a 79th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Gypsum at the 75th percentile, close to its 79th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
2,461 buildings are counted in Gypsum, and 84% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 16% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Gypsum against the rest of the country
Gypsum's 79th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 53rd ranking inside Colorado does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 26 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gypsum ranks 6,488 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,374 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 221 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
Gypsum and the insurance market
Gypsum's 79th-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 Gypsum
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Gypsum (84% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Gypsum's 79th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Gypsum, see the exposure-zones guide.