Altoona, PA
Altoona wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Altoona at the 45th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 16,185 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Altoona at the 43rd national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 75.3% of Altoona's 16,185 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 3.5% Direct and 21.2% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 16,185 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Altoona ranks
Within Pennsylvania, Altoona ranks higher (72nd percentile) than it does nationally (45th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Altoona ranks 17,499 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 898 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 566 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Altoona and the insurance market
At the 45th national percentile, Altoona rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Altoona's 75.3% 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 Altoona's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 16,185 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Altoona. The exposure-zones guide covers what Altoona's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.