Gainesville, VA
How exposed is Gainesville to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Gainesville at the 21st national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 4,464 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gainesville's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 21st percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 36.6% of Gainesville's 4,464 buildings carry Direct exposure and 26.2% carry Indirect; the remaining 37.2% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Gainesville ranks
There's little gap between Gainesville's 21st national percentile and its 12th percentile inside Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gainesville ranks 24,848 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,825 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 601 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Gainesville and the insurance market
Gainesville's moderate rating (21st 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
With 37.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Gainesville gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Gainesville's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 4,464 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Gainesville. The exposure-zones guide covers what Gainesville's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.