Bluefield, VA
How exposed is Bluefield to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Bluefield lands at the 76th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 2,596 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bluefield's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 78th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Bluefield's buildings (73.1%) 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 Bluefield compares
There's little gap between Bluefield's 76th national percentile and its 90th percentile inside Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bluefield ranks 7,548 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,112 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 70 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Bluefield's high rating (76th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Bluefield (73.1% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,596 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bluefield. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Bluefield, see the exposure-zones guide.