Fort Lee, VA
Fort Lee wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Fort Lee at the 41st national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,551 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Fort Lee at the 41st national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Fort Lee's buildings (87.1%) 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.
Fort Lee against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Fort Lee's 41st national percentile and its 36th percentile inside Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fort Lee ranks 18,515 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,953 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 436 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
Fort Lee's elevated rating (41st percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Fort Lee's 87.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Fort Lee's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,551 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Fort Lee. The exposure-zones guide covers what Fort Lee's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.