Bethel, PA
Bethel, PA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Bethel sits at the 40th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 345 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bethel at the 39th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Bethel's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Bethel's buildings (67%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Bethel ranks
Bethel's 63rd-percentile standing inside Pennsylvania outpaces its 40th 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, Bethel ranks 18,851 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,458 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 726 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Bethel and the insurance market
Bethel's elevated wildfire rating (40th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Bethel (67% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bethel's 18,851-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Bethel, see the exposure-zones guide.