Valley Center, KS
Valley Center, KS's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Valley Center sits at the 63rd 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 3,432 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Valley Center at the 57th national percentile — 6 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Valley Center rates 74.2% Minimal exposure against just 24.9% Direct and 1% Indirect — of 3,432 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Valley Center compares
Valley Center scores 63rd nationally and 56th within Kansas — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Valley Center ranks 11,751 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,868 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 314 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
Valley Center and the insurance market
Valley Center's high rating (63rd 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.
Hardening a home in Valley Center
Valley Center's 74.2% 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 Valley Center's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,432 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Valley Center. The exposure-zones guide covers what Valley Center's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.