Wheaton, KS
How exposed is Wheaton to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Wheaton lands at the 97th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 105 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Wheaton at the 95th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Wheaton's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 57.1% of Wheaton's 105 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 42.9% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Wheaton compares
There's little gap between Wheaton's 97th national percentile and its 99th percentile inside Kansas, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wheaton ranks 849 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,803 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 12 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Wheaton's very high rating (97th 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
Wheaton's 57.1% 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 Wheaton's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 105 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Wheaton. The exposure-zones guide covers what Wheaton's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.