Putnam, TX
How exposed is Putnam to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Putnam at the 91st national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 123 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Putnam at the 90th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Putnam's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Putnam: 65.9% of its 123 buildings, versus 34.2% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Putnam ranks
Putnam's risk sits at a similar level relative to Texas (86th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (91st) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Putnam ranks 2,849 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,040 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 247 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
Putnam's 91st-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Putnam (65.9%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Putnam's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Putnam's 2,849-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Putnam's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.