White Sulphur Springs, WV
White Sulphur Springs, WV's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
White Sulphur Springs's 1,476 buildings earn a 70th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks White Sulphur Springs at the 68th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where White Sulphur Springs's buildings actually sit
Most of White Sulphur Springs's buildings (81.8%) 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.
How White Sulphur Springs compares
White Sulphur Springs's risk sits at a similar level relative to West Virginia (63rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (70th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, White Sulphur Springs ranks 9,598 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,281 by building count (1 is largest). Within West Virginia alone, it ranks 159 of 429 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for West Virginia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 70th percentile nationally, White Sulphur Springs carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 81.8% of White Sulphur Springs's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
White Sulphur Springs's 70th-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 White Sulphur Springs, see the exposure-zones guide.