WildfireRiskFinder

Wiggins, MS

Wiggins wildfire risk explained

Very High
92ndpercentile nationally

Out of every US place USFS scores, Wiggins lands at the 92nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 2,508 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)

USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wiggins at the 94th percentile, close to its 92nd-percentile risk score.

What "at risk" means for the buildings here

2,508Total buildings
69.7%Direct exposure
30.2%Indirect exposure
0.1%Minimal exposure

69.7% of Wiggins's 2,508 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,748 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 30.2% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0.1% are Minimal.

Wiggins against the rest of the country

There's little gap between Wiggins's 92nd national percentile and its 94th percentile inside Mississippi, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wiggins ranks 2,552 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,288 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 25 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.

Shopping for coverage in Wiggins

At the 92nd percentile nationally, Wiggins carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.

What would actually reduce this score

Wiggins's 69.7% 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 Wiggins's figures come from

The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,508 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Wiggins. The exposure-zones guide covers what Wiggins's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.