Charles Town, WV
How exposed is Charles Town to wildfire?
USFS scores Charles Town at the 34th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 2,194 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Charles Town at the 36th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Charles Town's building exposure, zone by zone
84.1% of Charles Town's 2,194 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 15.6% Direct and 0.4% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Charles Town against the rest of the country
Charles Town's 34th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 4th ranking inside West Virginia does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 30 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Charles Town ranks 20,940 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,947 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 412 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Charles Town and the insurance market
At the 34th national percentile, Charles Town rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Charles Town (84.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Charles Town's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,194 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Charles Town. The exposure-zones guide covers what Charles Town's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.