Richards, MO
How exposed is Richards to wildfire?
USFS scores Richards at the 63rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 70 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Richards's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 64th percentile nationally.
Richards's building exposure, zone by zone
70 buildings are counted in Richards, and 54.3% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Richards compares
There's little gap between Richards's 63rd national percentile and its 62nd percentile inside Missouri, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Richards ranks 11,790 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,281 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 405 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Richards
Richards's 63rd-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Richards (54.3%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Richards's figures come from
Richards's 63rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Richards's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.