Holden, WV
Holden, WV's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Holden's 450 buildings earn a 96th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Holden at the 97th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
71.3% of Holden's 450 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 321 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 28.7% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Holden ranks
There's little gap between Holden's 96th national percentile and its 98th 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, Holden ranks 1,340 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,285 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 9 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Holden and the insurance market
Holden's very high rating (96th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Holden
With 71.3% of Holden 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.
More on how this number was built
Holden's 96th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Holden, see the exposure-zones guide.