Merigold, MS
Merigold wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Merigold at the 14th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 326 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Merigold's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 13th percentile nationally.
Merigold's building exposure, zone by zone
Merigold rates 63.5% Minimal exposure against just 25.8% Direct and 10.7% Indirect — of 326 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Merigold compares
There's little gap between Merigold's 14th national percentile and its 5th percentile inside Mississippi, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Merigold ranks 26,952 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,924 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 401 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Merigold
At the 14th national percentile, Merigold rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 63.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Merigold gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Merigold's figures come from
Merigold's 14th-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 Merigold's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.