Smithville-Sanders, IN
How exposed is Smithville-Sanders to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Smithville-Sanders at the 21st national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 1,779 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Smithville-Sanders at the 23rd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Smithville-Sanders's buildings actually sit
91.3% of Smithville-Sanders's 1,779 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,624 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 7% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 1.7% are Minimal.
How Smithville-Sanders compares
Within Indiana, Smithville-Sanders ranks higher (84th percentile) than it does nationally (21st) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Smithville-Sanders ranks 24,798 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,125 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 159 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Smithville-Sanders's moderate wildfire rating (21st 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
With 91.3% of Smithville-Sanders in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Smithville-Sanders's 21st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Smithville-Sanders, see the exposure-zones guide.