Lena, MS
How exposed is Lena to wildfire?
Lena sits at the 72nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 172 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Lena at the 75th percentile, close to its 72nd-percentile risk score.
Where Lena's buildings actually sit
100% of Lena's 172 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 172 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Lena compares
Lena's risk sits at a similar level relative to Mississippi (65th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (72nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lena ranks 8,768 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,942 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 148 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Lena'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.
Hardening a home in Lena
With 100% of Lena in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Lena's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Lena's 8,768-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lena's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.