Oxford, MS
Oxford wildfire risk explained
Oxford's 11,640 buildings earn a 76th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Oxford at the 79th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Oxford's building exposure, zone by zone
11,640 buildings are counted in Oxford, and 59.9% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 40.1% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal. At 11,640 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Oxford against the rest of the country
Oxford's risk sits at a similar level relative to Mississippi (74th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (76th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Oxford ranks 7,565 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,349 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 112 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Oxford and the insurance market
Oxford's 76th-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
Because 59.9% of Oxford's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Oxford's figures come from
Oxford's 76th-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 Oxford's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.