Wardsville, MO
Wardsville wildfire risk explained
Wardsville's 793 buildings earn a 65th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wardsville at the 67th percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
85.3% of Wardsville's 793 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 676 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 14.8% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Wardsville compares
Wardsville's risk sits at a similar level relative to Missouri (70th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (65th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wardsville ranks 11,008 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,702 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 328 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Wardsville's 65th-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 Wardsville
Wardsville's 85.3% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Wardsville's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 793 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Wardsville. The exposure-zones guide covers what Wardsville's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.