Onancock, VA
How exposed is Onancock to wildfire?
USFS scores Onancock at the 49th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 899 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Onancock at the 48th percentile, close to its 49th-percentile risk score.
Where Onancock's buildings actually sit
53.4% of Onancock's 899 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 480 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 45.7% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0.9% are Minimal.
How Onancock compares
Onancock's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (51st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (49th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Onancock ranks 16,152 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,735 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 335 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Onancock
Onancock's elevated wildfire rating (49th 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 Onancock (53.4%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Onancock's 16,152-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Onancock, see the exposure-zones guide.