Suffolk, VA
Suffolk, VA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Suffolk at the 55th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 46,253 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Suffolk at the 53rd percentile, close to its 55th-percentile risk score.
Where Suffolk's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 55.7% of Suffolk's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 25.8% Indirect share and far above its 18.5% Minimal share — a profile where 25,763 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most. At 46,253 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Suffolk against the rest of the country
Suffolk's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (60th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (55th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Suffolk ranks 14,168 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 198 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 270 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
Suffolk's elevated rating (55th 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
Suffolk's 55.7% 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
Suffolk's 55th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Suffolk, see the exposure-zones guide.