Pembroke, VA
How exposed is Pembroke to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Pembroke at the 65th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 631 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Pembroke's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 65th percentile nationally.
Pembroke's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Pembroke's buildings (51.7%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Pembroke compares
Pembroke scores 65th nationally and 75th within Virginia — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pembroke ranks 11,206 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,447 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 170 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Pembroke
Pembroke's 65th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Pembroke (51.7% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Pembroke's figures come from
Pembroke's 65th-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 Pembroke's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.