Shawsville, VA
How exposed is Shawsville to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Shawsville at the 73rd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 770 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Shawsville at the 73rd national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Shawsville's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 60.3% of Shawsville's 770 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 39.7% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Shawsville compares
There's little gap between Shawsville's 73rd national percentile and its 88th percentile inside Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shawsville ranks 8,527 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,920 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 87 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Shawsville and the insurance market
At the 73rd percentile nationally, Shawsville carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Shawsville's 60.3% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Shawsville's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 770 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Shawsville. The exposure-zones guide covers what Shawsville's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.