Aristes, PA
How exposed is Aristes to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Aristes at the 60th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 245 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 Aristes at the 58th percentile, close to its 60th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 66.1% of Aristes's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 33.9% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 162 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Where Aristes ranks
Aristes's 97th-percentile standing inside Pennsylvania outpaces its 60th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Aristes ranks 12,489 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,310 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 66 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Aristes's 60th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 66.1% of Aristes in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Aristes's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Aristes's 12,489-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Aristes's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.