Belle, WV
Belle wildfire risk explained
Belle sits at the 90th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 747 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Belle at the 92nd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Belle's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 96.5% of Belle's 747 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 3.5% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Belle ranks
There's little gap between Belle's 90th national percentile and its 82nd percentile inside West Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Belle ranks 3,039 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,157 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 76 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Belle's 90th-percentile, very 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 96.5% of Belle's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Belle's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 747 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Belle. The exposure-zones guide covers what Belle's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.