Ross, TX
How exposed is Ross to wildfire?
USFS scores Ross at the 78th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 170 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Ross at the 78th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Ross's building exposure, zone by zone
95.3% of Ross's 170 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 162 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 4.7% are Minimal.
Where Ross ranks
Ross ranks lower within Texas (56th percentile statewide) than its 78th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ross ranks 7,012 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,048 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 806 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
Ross and the insurance market
Ross's 78th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Ross (95.3%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ross's 7,012-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Ross, see the exposure-zones guide.