Covel, WV
Covel wildfire risk explained
Covel sits at the 83rd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 84 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Covel's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 85th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Covel: 90.5% of its 84 buildings, versus 9.5% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Covel against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Covel's 83rd national percentile and its 72nd percentile inside West Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Covel ranks 5,531 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,747 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 119 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Covel
Covel's very high rating (83rd percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With 90.5% of Covel in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Covel's figures come from
Covel's 83rd-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 Covel's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.