Franconia, VA
How exposed is Franconia to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Franconia lands at the 25th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 2,598 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 Franconia at the 26th percentile, close to its 25th-percentile risk score.
Franconia's building exposure, zone by zone
Franconia rates 73.4% Minimal exposure against just 22.1% Direct and 4.4% Indirect — of 2,598 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Franconia ranks
There's little gap between Franconia's 25th national percentile and its 15th percentile inside Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Franconia ranks 23,528 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,106 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 578 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Franconia and the insurance market
At the 25th national percentile, Franconia rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 73.4% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Franconia gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Franconia's figures come from
Franconia's 25th-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 Franconia's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.