Gate City, VA
Gate City, VA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Gate City at the 76th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,282 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gate City's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 79th percentile nationally.
Where Gate City's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 61.2% of Gate City's 1,282 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 38.8% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Gate City compares
Gate City's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (89th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (76th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gate City ranks 7,613 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,188 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 73 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
At the 76th percentile nationally, Gate City 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.
Hardening a home in Gate City
Because 61.2% of Gate City's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Gate City's 76th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Gate City, see the exposure-zones guide.