WildfireRiskFinder

Beaver Dam Lake, NY

Beaver Dam Lake wildfire risk explained

Elevated
47thpercentile nationally

USFS scores Beaver Dam Lake at the 47th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,000 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)

Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Beaver Dam Lake at the 48th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.

What "at risk" means for the buildings here

1,000Total buildings
86%Direct exposure
12.3%Indirect exposure
1.7%Minimal exposure

Direct exposure dominates in Beaver Dam Lake: 86% of its 1,000 buildings, versus 12.3% Indirect and 1.7% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.

Where Beaver Dam Lake ranks

Within New York, Beaver Dam Lake ranks higher (91st percentile) than it does nationally (47th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Beaver Dam Lake ranks 16,737 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,934 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 113 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.

Beaver Dam Lake and the insurance market

At the 47th national percentile, Beaver Dam Lake rates elevated 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

Beaver Dam Lake's 86% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.

Where Beaver Dam Lake's figures come from

Every one of the two percentiles behind Beaver Dam Lake's 16,737-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Beaver Dam Lake's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.