Athens, PA
How exposed is Athens to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Athens lands at the 31st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 1,483 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Athens at the 30th percentile, close to its 31st-percentile risk score.
Athens's building exposure, zone by zone
78.7% of Athens's 1,483 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 21.3% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Athens ranks
There's little gap between Athens's 31st national percentile and its 41st percentile inside Pennsylvania, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Athens ranks 21,723 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,239 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,176 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
At the 31st national percentile, Athens rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 78.7% of Athens's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Athens's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,483 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Athens. The exposure-zones guide covers what Athens's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.