West Sullivan, MO
How exposed is West Sullivan to wildfire?
West Sullivan's 108 buildings earn a 62nd-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 West Sullivan at the 64th percentile, close to its 62nd-percentile risk score.
West Sullivan's building exposure, zone by zone
Of West Sullivan's 108 counted buildings, 79.6% 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.
West Sullivan against the rest of the country
There's little gap between West Sullivan's 62nd national percentile and its 61st percentile inside Missouri, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Sullivan ranks 11,949 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,698 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 416 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in West Sullivan
West Sullivan's 62nd-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in West Sullivan (79.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where West Sullivan's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 108 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for West Sullivan. The exposure-zones guide covers what West Sullivan's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.