Flatwoods, KY
Flatwoods wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Flatwoods at the 55th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 3,837 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Flatwoods at the 58th percentile, close to its 55th-percentile risk score.
Where Flatwoods's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Flatwoods (64.4% of 3,837 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 15.4% sit in the Direct zone.
How Flatwoods compares
Compare Flatwoods's two percentiles: 80th within Kentucky, only 55th nationally — a gap of 25 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Flatwoods ranks 14,241 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,391 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 108 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
Flatwoods and the insurance market
Flatwoods's elevated rating (55th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Flatwoods (64.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Flatwoods's 14,241-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Flatwoods, see the exposure-zones guide.