Smithfield, VA
How exposed is Smithfield to wildfire?
USFS scores Smithfield at the 51st national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 4,200 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Smithfield at the 48th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Smithfield's buildings actually sit
53.2% of Smithfield's 4,200 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 2,236 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 38.8% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 8% are Minimal.
How Smithfield compares
Smithfield's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (54th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (51st) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Smithfield ranks 15,554 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,061 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 312 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
Smithfield's elevated rating (51st percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Smithfield's 53.2% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Smithfield's 15,554-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Smithfield, see the exposure-zones guide.