Apple Mountain Lake, VA
Apple Mountain Lake, VA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Apple Mountain Lake at the 56th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 562 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Apple Mountain Lake at the 55th percentile, close to its 56th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
562 buildings are counted in Apple Mountain Lake, and 99.5% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Apple Mountain Lake compares
Apple Mountain Lake's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (62nd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (56th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Apple Mountain Lake ranks 13,822 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,381 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 261 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Apple Mountain Lake and the insurance market
Apple Mountain Lake's elevated rating (56th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Apple Mountain Lake's 99.5% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 562 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Apple Mountain Lake. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Apple Mountain Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.