Elk Creek, KY
Elk Creek wildfire risk explained
Elk Creek sits at the 22nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,066 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Elk Creek at the 24th percentile, close to its 22nd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
97.4% of Elk Creek's 1,066 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,038 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 2.6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Elk Creek ranks
Elk Creek's 40th-percentile standing inside Kentucky outpaces its 22nd national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elk Creek ranks 24,550 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,487 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 334 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Elk Creek's moderate rating (22nd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Elk Creek
Elk Creek's 97.4% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Elk Creek's 24,550-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Elk Creek, see the exposure-zones guide.