Kirkwood, MO
Kirkwood wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Kirkwood at the 44th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 12,025 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Kirkwood at the 46th percentile, close to its 44th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 11.5% of Kirkwood's 12,025 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 88.5% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 12,025 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Kirkwood ranks
Kirkwood ranks lower within Missouri (20th percentile statewide) than its 44th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Kirkwood ranks 17,804 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,298 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 849 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Kirkwood and the insurance market
Kirkwood's elevated rating (44th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 88.5% of Kirkwood outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Kirkwood's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Kirkwood's 17,804-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Kirkwood's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.