Grafton, WV
Grafton wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Grafton at the 43rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 2,567 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Grafton at the 44th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Grafton's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Grafton (78.2% of 2,567 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 21.8% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Grafton ranks
Inside West Virginia, Grafton sits at just the 24th percentile even though it scores 43rd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Grafton ranks 17,919 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,168 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 326 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
At the 43rd national percentile, Grafton rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Grafton's 78.2% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Grafton's 17,919-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Grafton, see the exposure-zones guide.