Glen Ferris, WV
How exposed is Glen Ferris to wildfire?
USFS scores Glen Ferris at the 93rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 104 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 Glen Ferris at the 94th percentile, close to its 93rd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 78.9% of Glen Ferris's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 18.3% Indirect share and far above its 2.9% Minimal share — a profile where 82 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Glen Ferris compares
There's little gap between Glen Ferris's 93rd national percentile and its 90th 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, Glen Ferris ranks 2,223 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,875 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 42 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Glen Ferris's 93rd-percentile, very 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 Direct exposure dominates in Glen Ferris (78.9%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Glen Ferris's figures come from
Glen Ferris's 93rd-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 Glen Ferris's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.