Harrisonburg, LA
How exposed is Harrisonburg to wildfire?
USFS scores Harrisonburg at the 48th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 229 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Harrisonburg at the 48th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Harrisonburg's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Harrisonburg: 78.2% of its 229 buildings, versus 21% Indirect and 0.9% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Harrisonburg ranks
There's little gap between Harrisonburg's 48th national percentile and its 52nd percentile inside Louisiana, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Harrisonburg ranks 16,510 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,820 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 235 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
Harrisonburg and the insurance market
Harrisonburg's elevated wildfire rating (48th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Harrisonburg (78.2%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Harrisonburg's figures come from
Harrisonburg's 48th-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 Harrisonburg's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.