Sandston, VA
How exposed is Sandston to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Sandston lands at the 41st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 3,863 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Sandston's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 41st percentile nationally.
Sandston's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 29.8% of Sandston's 3,863 buildings carry Direct exposure and 7% carry Indirect; the remaining 63.2% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How Sandston compares
Sandston scores 41st nationally and 36th 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, Sandston ranks 18,516 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,371 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 437 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Sandston's elevated rating (41st percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With 63.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Sandston gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Sandston's 18,516-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Sandston, see the exposure-zones guide.