Karnes City, TX
Karnes City wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Karnes City lands at the 72nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,873 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Karnes City at the 71st percentile, close to its 72nd-percentile risk score.
Where Karnes City's buildings actually sit
80.9% of Karnes City's 1,873 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 19.1% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Karnes City ranks
Karnes City ranks lower within Texas (35th percentile statewide) than its 72nd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Karnes City ranks 8,990 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,841 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 1,169 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
Karnes City's 72nd-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Karnes City (80.9% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,873 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Karnes City. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Karnes City, see the exposure-zones guide.