Oskaloosa, KS
How exposed is Oskaloosa to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Oskaloosa lands at the 72nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 629 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Oskaloosa at the 73rd percentile, close to its 72nd-percentile risk score.
Where Oskaloosa's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 65.2% of Oskaloosa's 629 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 34.8% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Oskaloosa ranks
There's little gap between Oskaloosa's 72nd national percentile and its 70th percentile inside Kansas, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Oskaloosa ranks 8,724 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,457 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 217 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
Oskaloosa'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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Oskaloosa's 65.2% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Oskaloosa's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 629 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Oskaloosa. The exposure-zones guide covers what Oskaloosa's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.