Brooks, KY
Brooks wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Brooks at the 21st national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 1,559 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Brooks at the 23rd national percentile — 2 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
71.6% of Brooks's 1,559 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,116 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 28.4% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Brooks against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Brooks's 21st national percentile and its 36th percentile inside Kentucky, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Brooks ranks 24,860 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,924 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 353 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
Brooks's moderate wildfire rating (21st percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Brooks (71.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Brooks's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Brooks's 24,860-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Brooks's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.