Highland Springs, VA
Highland Springs wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Highland Springs lands at the 36th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 6,431 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 Highland Springs at the 37th percentile, close to its 36th-percentile risk score.
Where Highland Springs's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Highland Springs (64% of 6,431 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 34% sit in the Direct zone. At 6,431 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Highland Springs ranks
Highland Springs's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (26th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (36th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Highland Springs ranks 20,219 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,694 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 507 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Highland Springs and the insurance market
At the 36th national percentile, Highland Springs rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Highland Springs's 64% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Highland Springs's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,431 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Highland Springs. The exposure-zones guide covers what Highland Springs's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.