Barlow, KY
Barlow wildfire risk explained
Barlow's 444 buildings earn a 22nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Barlow at the 22nd percentile, close to its 22nd-percentile risk score.
Where Barlow's buildings actually sit
Most of Barlow's buildings (57.7%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Barlow ranks
Compare Barlow's two percentiles: 40th within Kentucky, only 22nd nationally — a gap of 18 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Barlow ranks 24,455 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,378 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 330 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Barlow's moderate rating (22nd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Barlow (57.7% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Barlow's 24,455-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Barlow, see the exposure-zones guide.