Salem, KY
Salem, KY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Salem sits at the 29th 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 577 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Salem at the 31st national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Salem's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Salem's 577 counted buildings, 66% 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 Salem compares
Salem's 56th-percentile standing inside Kentucky outpaces its 29th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Salem ranks 22,278 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,147 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 244 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Salem
At the 29th national percentile, Salem rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 66% of Salem 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Salem's 22,278-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Salem, see the exposure-zones guide.