Paw Paw, WV
Paw Paw, WV's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Paw Paw's 317 buildings earn a 59th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Paw Paw at the 57th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Paw Paw's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 90.9% of Paw Paw's 317 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 9.2% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Paw Paw compares
There's little gap between Paw Paw's 59th national percentile and its 49th percentile inside West Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Paw Paw ranks 12,939 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,197 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 222 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Paw Paw's elevated rating (59th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Paw Paw
Paw Paw's 90.9% 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 Paw Paw's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Paw Paw's 12,939-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Paw Paw's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.