Vivian, WV
Vivian, WV's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Vivian at the 87th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 58 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Vivian at the 89th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Vivian's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Vivian (56.9% of 58 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 43.1% sit in the Direct zone.
Vivian against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Vivian's 87th national percentile and its 76th percentile inside West Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Vivian ranks 4,208 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,731 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 104 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Vivian
Vivian's 87th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Vivian's 56.9% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Vivian's figures come from
Vivian's 87th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Vivian's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.