McDowell, KY
How exposed is McDowell to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, McDowell lands at the 94th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 457 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts McDowell at the 96th percentile, close to its 94th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
457 buildings are counted in McDowell, and 70% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How McDowell compares
McDowell scores 94th nationally and 98th within Kentucky — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, McDowell ranks 1,952 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,126 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 10 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
McDowell and the insurance market
McDowell's 94th-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.
Hardening a home in McDowell
Because Direct exposure dominates in McDowell (70%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where McDowell's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 457 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for McDowell. The exposure-zones guide covers what McDowell's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.