Pierce City, MO
Pierce City wildfire risk explained
Pierce City's 800 buildings earn a 68th-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.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Pierce City at the 69th percentile, close to its 68th-percentile risk score.
Where Pierce City's buildings actually sit
57.1% of Pierce City's 800 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 457 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 42.9% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Pierce City ranks
Pierce City scores 68th nationally and 76th within Missouri — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pierce City ranks 10,177 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,635 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 250 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Pierce City's 68th-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 Pierce City
Pierce City's 57.1% 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.
More on how this number was built
Pierce City's 68th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Pierce City, see the exposure-zones guide.