Ballston Spa, NY
Ballston Spa, NY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Ballston Spa at the 20th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 1,995 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Ballston Spa at the 20th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Ballston Spa's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 54.8% of Ballston Spa's 1,995 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 22.8% Direct and 22.4% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Ballston Spa ranks
Ballston Spa's 45th-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 20th 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, Ballston Spa ranks 25,345 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,492 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 715 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ballston Spa
At the 20th national percentile, Ballston Spa rates low 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
Ballston Spa's 54.8% 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 Ballston Spa's figures come from
Ballston Spa's 20th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ballston Spa's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.