Waynesboro, VA
Waynesboro wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Waynesboro at the 62nd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 9,354 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Waynesboro's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 61st percentile nationally.
Where Waynesboro's buildings actually sit
54.6% of Waynesboro's 9,354 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 17% Direct and 28.4% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 9,354 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Waynesboro against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Waynesboro's 62nd national percentile and its 70th percentile inside Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Waynesboro ranks 11,866 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,753 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 202 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Waynesboro and the insurance market
Waynesboro's high rating (62nd percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Waynesboro's 54.6% 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 Waynesboro's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Waynesboro's 11,866-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Waynesboro's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.