Drakes Branch, VA
Drakes Branch, VA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Drakes Branch's 347 buildings earn a 37th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Drakes Branch at the 38th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Drakes Branch's buildings actually sit
Of Drakes Branch's 347 counted buildings, 96% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Drakes Branch against the rest of the country
Drakes Branch's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (27th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (37th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Drakes Branch ranks 19,929 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,412 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 498 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Drakes Branch and the insurance market
Drakes Branch's moderate wildfire rating (37th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 96% of Drakes Branch 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.
Where Drakes Branch's figures come from
Drakes Branch's 37th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Drakes Branch's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.