Columbia Furnace, VA
Columbia Furnace wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Columbia Furnace at the 63rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 411 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 Columbia Furnace at the 63rd percentile, close to its 63rd-percentile risk score.
Columbia Furnace's building exposure, zone by zone
75.4% of Columbia Furnace's 411 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 310 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 24.6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Columbia Furnace against the rest of the country
Columbia Furnace's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (71st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (63rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Columbia Furnace ranks 11,771 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,026 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 198 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Columbia Furnace
At the 63rd percentile nationally, Columbia Furnace 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
With 75.4% of Columbia Furnace 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 Columbia Furnace's 11,771-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Columbia Furnace, see the exposure-zones guide.