Harriston, VA
Harriston, VA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Harriston's 495 buildings earn a 63rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Harriston at the 62nd percentile, close to its 63rd-percentile risk score.
Where Harriston's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Harriston: 56% of its 495 buildings, versus 44% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Harriston ranks
Harriston's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (71st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (63rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Harriston ranks 11,740 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,451 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 197 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Harriston and the insurance market
Harriston's 63rd-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Harriston's 56% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Harriston's 63rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Harriston, see the exposure-zones guide.