Newton, KS
Newton, KS's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Newton sits at the 48th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 9,289 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Newton at the 44th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Newton's building exposure, zone by zone
94.5% of Newton's 9,289 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 5.5% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 9,289 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Newton compares
Newton's 48th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 27th ranking inside Kansas does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 21 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Newton ranks 16,385 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,773 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 524 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
Newton and the insurance market
Newton's elevated wildfire rating (48th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Newton's 94.5% 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.
Where Newton's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 9,289 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Newton. The exposure-zones guide covers what Newton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.