Pineville, WV
How exposed is Pineville to wildfire?
USFS scores Pineville at the 89th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 487 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Pineville at the 91st national percentile — 2 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
52% of Pineville's 487 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 253 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 48.1% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Pineville against the rest of the country
Pineville's risk sits at a similar level relative to West Virginia (80th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (89th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pineville ranks 3,389 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,593 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 88 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Pineville and the insurance market
Pineville'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.
Hardening a home in Pineville
With 52% of Pineville in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Pineville's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Pineville's 3,389-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pineville's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.