Shepherd, TX
How exposed is Shepherd to wildfire?
Shepherd sits at the 72nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,161 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Shepherd at the 74th percentile, close to its 72nd-percentile risk score.
Where Shepherd's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Shepherd: 58.4% of its 1,161 buildings, versus 41.6% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Shepherd ranks
Inside Texas, Shepherd sits at just the 36th percentile even though it scores 72nd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shepherd ranks 8,902 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,885 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 1,154 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Shepherd
Shepherd's high rating (72nd percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Shepherd's 58.4% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Shepherd's figures come from
Shepherd's 72nd-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 Shepherd's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.