Seneca, MO
Seneca wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Seneca at the 79th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,170 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Seneca at the 81st percentile, close to its 79th-percentile risk score.
Seneca's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Seneca (51% of 1,170 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 49% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Seneca ranks
Within Missouri, Seneca ranks higher (96th percentile) than it does nationally (79th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Seneca ranks 6,494 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,828 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 44 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
Seneca's 79th-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 51% of Seneca's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,170 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Seneca. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Seneca, see the exposure-zones guide.