Bechtelsville, PA
How exposed is Bechtelsville to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Bechtelsville at the 16th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 359 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bechtelsville at the 14th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Bechtelsville's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Bechtelsville (54.9% of 359 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 45.1% sit in the Direct zone.
How Bechtelsville compares
There's little gap between Bechtelsville's 16th national percentile and its 16th percentile inside Pennsylvania, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bechtelsville ranks 26,584 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,097 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,681 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bechtelsville
At the 16th national percentile, Bechtelsville rates low 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
Bechtelsville's 54.9% 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 Bechtelsville's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bechtelsville's 26,584-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bechtelsville's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.