Vernon, TX
How exposed is Vernon to wildfire?
Vernon sits at the 81st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 6,029 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Vernon at the 78th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Vernon's buildings actually sit
55% of Vernon's 6,029 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 5.3% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 6,029 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Vernon compares
Inside Texas, Vernon sits at just the 63rd percentile even though it scores 81st 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, Vernon ranks 6,097 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,868 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 666 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
Vernon and the insurance market
Vernon's very high rating (81st 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Vernon's 55% 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 Vernon's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,029 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Vernon. The exposure-zones guide covers what Vernon's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.