Livingston, KY
Livingston wildfire risk explained
Livingston sits at the 85th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 156 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Livingston at the 87th percentile, close to its 85th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Livingston (65.4% of 156 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 34.6% sit in the Direct zone.
Livingston against the rest of the country
Livingston's risk sits at a similar level relative to Kentucky (86th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (85th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Livingston ranks 4,892 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,620 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 76 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
Livingston and the insurance market
Livingston's 85th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Livingston's 65.4% 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.
Where Livingston's figures come from
Livingston's 85th-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 Livingston's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.