Wheeling, WV
Wheeling, WV's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Wheeling's 11,524 buildings earn a 36th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Wheeling's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 37th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Wheeling's buildings (87.5%) 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 11,524 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Wheeling ranks
Wheeling ranks lower within West Virginia (7th percentile statewide) than its 36th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wheeling ranks 20,062 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,363 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 398 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
Wheeling and the insurance market
At the 36th national percentile, Wheeling 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Wheeling (87.5% 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
Wheeling's 36th-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 Wheeling, see the exposure-zones guide.