Burnsville, WV
How exposed is Burnsville to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Burnsville at the 49th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 309 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Burnsville at the 48th percentile, close to its 49th-percentile risk score.
Burnsville's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 61.5% of Burnsville's 309 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 38.5% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Burnsville compares
Burnsville's risk sits at a similar level relative to West Virginia (36th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (49th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Burnsville ranks 16,249 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,409 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 277 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Burnsville and the insurance market
Burnsville's elevated wildfire rating (49th 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
Burnsville's 61.5% 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 Burnsville's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Burnsville's 16,249-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Burnsville's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.