Shawnee, KS
Shawnee wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Shawnee lands at the 46th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 22,895 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Shawnee's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 47th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Shawnee rates 74.1% Minimal exposure against just 18.9% Direct and 7% Indirect — of 22,895 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 22,895 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Shawnee ranks
Shawnee ranks lower within Kansas (23rd percentile statewide) than its 46th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shawnee ranks 16,983 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 579 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 554 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
Shawnee and the insurance market
Shawnee's elevated wildfire rating (46th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Shawnee's 74.1% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Shawnee's figures come from
Shawnee's 46th-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 Shawnee's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.