Fayetteville, WV
Fayetteville wildfire risk explained
Fayetteville sits at the 75th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,662 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Fayetteville's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 76th percentile nationally.
Where Fayetteville's buildings actually sit
58.6% of Fayetteville's 1,662 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 41.4% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Fayetteville compares
There's little gap between Fayetteville's 75th national percentile and its 68th 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, Fayetteville ranks 8,022 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,559 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 138 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Fayetteville and the insurance market
Fayetteville's 75th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 58.6% of Fayetteville's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,662 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Fayetteville. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Fayetteville, see the exposure-zones guide.