Palacios, TX
How exposed is Palacios to wildfire?
Palacios sits at the 79th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 2,382 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Palacios's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 81st percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Palacios's buildings (78.9% of 2,382) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Palacios against the rest of the country
Palacios's 79th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 60th ranking inside Texas does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 20 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Palacios ranks 6,506 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,545 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 727 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Palacios's 79th-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
Even with 78.9% of Palacios outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Palacios's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,382 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Palacios. The exposure-zones guide covers what Palacios's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.