Van Buren, MO
Van Buren wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Van Buren lands at the 73rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 539 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Van Buren's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 76th percentile nationally.
Van Buren's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Van Buren's 539 counted buildings, 58.8% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Van Buren ranks
Van Buren's risk sits at a similar level relative to Missouri (88th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (73rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Van Buren ranks 8,611 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,735 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 136 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Van Buren and the insurance market
Van Buren's 73rd-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.
Hardening a home in Van Buren
With 58.8% of Van Buren 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Van Buren's 8,611-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Van Buren, see the exposure-zones guide.