Pencil Bluff, AR
Pencil Bluff, AR's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Pencil Bluff 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 96 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Pencil Bluff at the 83rd national percentile — 4 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Pencil Bluff's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Pencil Bluff: 100% of its 96 buildings, versus 0% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Pencil Bluff against the rest of the country
Pencil Bluff scores 79th nationally and 79th within Arkansas — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pencil Bluff ranks 6,486 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,219 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arkansas alone, it ranks 133 of 614 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arkansas on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Pencil Bluff
Pencil Bluff'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.
Hardening a home in Pencil Bluff
Because Direct exposure dominates in Pencil Bluff (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Pencil Bluff's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Pencil Bluff's 6,486-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pencil Bluff's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.