Baxter, WV
Baxter, WV's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Baxter's 117 buildings earn a 41st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Baxter at the 43rd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
59% of Baxter's 117 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 41% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Baxter against the rest of the country
Inside West Virginia, Baxter sits at just the 18th percentile even though it scores 41st nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Baxter ranks 18,517 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,336 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 350 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Baxter
Baxter's elevated rating (41st 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 Baxter (59% 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
Baxter's 41st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Baxter, see the exposure-zones guide.