Sheldon, MO
How exposed is Sheldon to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Sheldon at the 60th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 352 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Sheldon at the 61st national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Sheldon's buildings (58%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Sheldon against the rest of the country
Sheldon's risk sits at a similar level relative to Missouri (56th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (60th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sheldon ranks 12,577 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,263 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 471 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Sheldon and the insurance market
Sheldon's 60th-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 58% of Sheldon'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.
Where Sheldon's figures come from
Sheldon's 60th-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 Sheldon's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.