O'Brien, TX
How exposed is O'Brien to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts O'Brien at the 54th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 116 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 O'Brien at the 50th percentile, close to its 54th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 63.8% of O'Brien's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0% Indirect share and far above its 36.2% Minimal share — a profile where 74 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
O'Brien against the rest of the country
O'Brien's 54th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 10th ranking inside Texas does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 45 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, O'Brien ranks 14,418 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,389 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 1,625 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
O'Brien and the insurance market
O'Brien's elevated rating (54th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in O'Brien
O'Brien's 63.8% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where O'Brien's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 116 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for O'Brien. The exposure-zones guide covers what O'Brien's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.