Van Lear, KY
Van Lear, KY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Van Lear at the 90th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 615 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Van Lear's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 93rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Van Lear's 615 counted buildings, 95.3% 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.
Van Lear against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Van Lear's 90th national percentile and its 91st percentile inside Kentucky, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Van Lear ranks 3,146 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,628 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 53 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Van Lear's very high rating (90th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Van Lear's 95.3% 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 Van Lear's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Van Lear's 3,146-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Van Lear's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.