Dawson Springs, KY
How exposed is Dawson Springs to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Dawson Springs lands at the 41st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,495 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Dawson Springs at the 43rd percentile, close to its 41st-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
63.6% of Dawson Springs's 1,495 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 951 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 36.4% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Dawson Springs ranks
Compare Dawson Springs's two percentiles: 68th within Kentucky, only 41st nationally — a gap of 28 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Dawson Springs ranks 18,743 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,191 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 175 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Dawson Springs
Dawson Springs's elevated wildfire rating (41st 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.
Hardening a home in Dawson Springs
With 63.6% of Dawson Springs 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 Dawson Springs's figures come from
Dawson Springs's 41st-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 Dawson Springs's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.