Preston, MO
Preston, MO's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Preston sits at the 86th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 193 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Preston's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 88th percentile nationally.
Where Preston's buildings actually sit
Of Preston's 193 counted buildings, 70% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Preston compares
Preston's risk sits at a similar level relative to Missouri (100th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (86th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Preston ranks 4,508 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,124 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 4 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Preston and the insurance market
Preston's 86th-percentile, very 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 Preston
With 70% of Preston in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Preston's 4,508-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Preston, see the exposure-zones guide.