Ghent, WV
Ghent wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Ghent at the 67th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 584 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Ghent at the 69th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Ghent's buildings actually sit
88.4% of Ghent's 584 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 516 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 5.7% are Minimal.
How Ghent compares
Ghent scores 67th nationally and 60th within West Virginia — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ghent ranks 10,575 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,057 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 174 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ghent
Ghent's 67th-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
With 88.4% of Ghent 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 Ghent's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ghent's 10,575-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ghent's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.