Valley Mills, TX
Valley Mills wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Valley Mills lands at the 92nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 697 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Valley Mills at the 91st national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Valley Mills's buildings actually sit
Most of Valley Mills's buildings (64.6%) 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.
Valley Mills against the rest of the country
Valley Mills's risk sits at a similar level relative to Texas (89th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (92nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Valley Mills ranks 2,597 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,702 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 205 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
Valley Mills's very high rating (92nd 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
Valley Mills's 64.6% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Valley Mills's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 697 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Valley Mills. The exposure-zones guide covers what Valley Mills's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.