Lancaster, KY
Lancaster wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Lancaster at the 52nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 2,036 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Lancaster at the 55th 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
Of Lancaster's 2,036 counted buildings, 55.7% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Lancaster compares
Within Kentucky, Lancaster ranks higher (78th percentile) than it does nationally (52nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lancaster ranks 15,221 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,368 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 121 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 52nd national percentile, Lancaster rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Lancaster (55.7%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Lancaster's 15,221-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Lancaster, see the exposure-zones guide.