Rochester, KY
Rochester, KY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Rochester at the 39th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 153 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Rochester at the 42nd national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Rochester's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Rochester's 153 counted buildings, 100% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Rochester compares
Compare Rochester's two percentiles: 67th within Kentucky, only 39th nationally — a gap of 28 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Rochester ranks 19,158 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,749 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 182 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Rochester
Rochester's moderate wildfire rating (39th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Rochester's 100% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Rochester's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 153 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Rochester. The exposure-zones guide covers what Rochester's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.