West Salem, OH
West Salem wildfire risk explained
West Salem sits at the 25th 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 873 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, West Salem's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 25th percentile nationally.
Where West Salem's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 78.9% of West Salem's 873 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 21.1% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How West Salem compares
Compare West Salem's two percentiles: 58th within Ohio, only 25th nationally — a gap of 32 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Salem ranks 23,581 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,963 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 534 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
West Salem and the insurance market
At the 25th national percentile, West 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
West Salem's 78.9% 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.
More on how this number was built
West Salem's 25th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond West Salem, see the exposure-zones guide.