West Hamlin, WV
How exposed is West Hamlin to wildfire?
USFS scores West Hamlin at the 72nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 415 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, West Hamlin's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 76th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of West Hamlin's 415 counted buildings, 76.1% 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.
Where West Hamlin ranks
West Hamlin scores 72nd nationally and 66th within West Virginia — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Hamlin ranks 8,716 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,938 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 147 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in West Hamlin
West Hamlin's 72nd-percentile, 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in West Hamlin (76.1%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
West Hamlin's 72nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond West Hamlin, see the exposure-zones guide.