Tool, TX
How exposed is Tool to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Tool lands at the 76th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,815 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Tool's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 77th percentile nationally.
Where Tool's buildings actually sit
68.5% of Tool's 1,815 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,243 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 18.1% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 13.4% are Minimal.
Tool against the rest of the country
Inside Texas, Tool sits at just the 49th percentile even though it scores 76th 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, Tool ranks 7,578 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,016 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 915 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Tool's 76th-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 Direct exposure dominates in Tool (68.5%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Tool's 7,578-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Tool, see the exposure-zones guide.