Paducah, KY
Paducah, KY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Paducah sits at the 36th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 13,251 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Paducah's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 38th percentile nationally.
Paducah's building exposure, zone by zone
43.6% of Paducah's 13,251 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 31.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 13,251 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Paducah ranks
Within Kentucky, Paducah ranks higher (64th percentile) than it does nationally (36th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Paducah ranks 20,322 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,150 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 197 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
Paducah's moderate rating (36th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 43.6% of Paducah outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Paducah's figures come from
Paducah's 36th-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 Paducah's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.