Buckhannon, WV
Buckhannon, WV's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Buckhannon at the 39th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 2,699 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Buckhannon's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 40th percentile nationally.
Buckhannon's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Buckhannon (91.7% of 2,699 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 8.3% sit in the Direct zone.
Buckhannon against the rest of the country
Buckhannon's 39th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 10th ranking inside West Virginia does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 28 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Buckhannon ranks 19,400 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,935 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 385 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Buckhannon and the insurance market
Buckhannon's moderate wildfire rating (39th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 91.7% of Buckhannon'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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Buckhannon's 19,400-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Buckhannon, see the exposure-zones guide.