Brookneal, VA
How exposed is Brookneal to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Brookneal lands at the 45th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 725 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Brookneal at the 47th percentile, close to its 45th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Brookneal: 64.1% of its 725 buildings, versus 35.9% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Brookneal compares
Brookneal's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (42nd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (45th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Brookneal ranks 17,474 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,399 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 391 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Brookneal and the insurance market
At the 45th national percentile, Brookneal rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Brookneal
With 64.1% of Brookneal in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Brookneal's 17,474-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Brookneal, see the exposure-zones guide.