St. Albans, WV
St. Albans, WV's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores St. Albans at the 65th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 6,038 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, St. Albans's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 67th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of St. Albans's buildings (91.1%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 6,038 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
St. Albans against the rest of the country
St. Albans's risk sits at a similar level relative to West Virginia (57th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (65th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Albans ranks 11,110 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,864 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 185 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
At the 65th percentile nationally, St. Albans carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in St. Albans (91.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind St. Albans's 11,110-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond St. Albans, see the exposure-zones guide.