Irvine, KY
How exposed is Irvine to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Irvine lands at the 63rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,252 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Irvine at the 66th national percentile — 3 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
USFS puts 88.7% of Irvine's 1,252 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 11.3% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Irvine compares
Compare Irvine's two percentiles: 83rd within Kentucky, only 63rd nationally — a gap of 20 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Irvine ranks 11,784 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,336 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 96 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
Irvine and the insurance market
Irvine's 63rd-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.
Hardening a home in Irvine
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Irvine (88.7% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Irvine's figures come from
Irvine's 63rd-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 Irvine's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.