Paintsville, KY
Paintsville wildfire risk explained
Paintsville sits at the 89th 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 1,863 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Paintsville at the 92nd 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
1,863 buildings are counted in Paintsville, and 79% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 21% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Paintsville ranks
Paintsville scores 89th nationally and 90th 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, Paintsville ranks 3,402 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,870 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 59 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
Paintsville and the insurance market
Paintsville's 89th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Paintsville's 79% 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 Paintsville's figures come from
Paintsville's 89th-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 Paintsville's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.