Purcellville, VA
How exposed is Purcellville to wildfire?
USFS scores Purcellville at the 32nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 2,823 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Purcellville at the 32nd national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Purcellville's buildings (70.4%) 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.
Purcellville against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Purcellville's 32nd national percentile and its 22nd percentile inside Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Purcellville ranks 21,413 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,720 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 532 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Purcellville
At the 32nd national percentile, Purcellville 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
Because 70.4% of Purcellville's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Purcellville's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Purcellville's 21,413-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Purcellville's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.