Brush Fork, WV
Brush Fork wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Brush Fork at the 70th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 756 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Brush Fork at the 73rd national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Brush Fork's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Brush Fork (75.5% of 756 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 24.5% sit in the Direct zone.
Brush Fork against the rest of the country
Brush Fork's risk sits at a similar level relative to West Virginia (64th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (70th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Brush Fork ranks 9,440 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,057 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 155 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
Brush Fork's 70th-percentile, 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
Brush Fork's 75.5% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Brush Fork's figures come from
Brush Fork's 70th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Brush Fork's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.