Staunton, VA
How exposed is Staunton to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Staunton at the 58th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 10,645 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Staunton at the 60th percentile, close to its 58th-percentile risk score.
Where Staunton's buildings actually sit
10,645 buildings are counted in Staunton, and 41.4% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 22.1% in Direct exposure or the 36.5% rated Minimal. At 10,645 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Staunton compares
Staunton scores 58th nationally and 64th 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, Staunton ranks 13,223 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,498 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 245 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Staunton
Staunton's elevated wildfire rating (58th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Staunton
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Staunton (41.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Staunton's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Staunton's 13,223-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Staunton's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.