New Salem, KS
How exposed is New Salem to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, New Salem lands at the 79th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 74 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks New Salem at the 71st national percentile — 8 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where New Salem's buildings actually sit
51.4% of New Salem's 74 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 48.7% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
New Salem against the rest of the country
There's little gap between New Salem's 79th national percentile and its 78th percentile inside Kansas, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, New Salem ranks 6,618 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,129 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 162 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 79th percentile nationally, New Salem carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in New Salem
New Salem's 51.4% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
New Salem'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 minimal exposure implies beyond New Salem, see the exposure-zones guide.