Piney Mountain, VA
Piney Mountain, VA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Piney Mountain lands at the 45th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 394 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 Piney Mountain at the 45th percentile, close to its 45th-percentile risk score.
Piney Mountain's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 74.4% of Piney Mountain's 394 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 25.6% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Piney Mountain ranks
Piney Mountain scores 45th nationally and 44th 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, Piney Mountain ranks 17,224 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,342 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 378 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Piney Mountain and the insurance market
At the 45th national percentile, Piney Mountain rates elevated 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Piney Mountain (74.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Piney Mountain's 45th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Piney Mountain, see the exposure-zones guide.