Blue Ridge Summit, PA
Blue Ridge Summit wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Blue Ridge Summit at the 63rd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 407 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Blue Ridge Summit at the 60th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Blue Ridge Summit's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Blue Ridge Summit (51.8% of 407 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 48.2% sit in the Direct zone.
How Blue Ridge Summit compares
Blue Ridge Summit's 98th-percentile standing inside Pennsylvania outpaces its 63rd 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, Blue Ridge Summit ranks 11,639 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,090 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 31 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Blue Ridge Summit and the insurance market
At the 63rd percentile nationally, Blue Ridge Summit carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Blue Ridge Summit
Blue Ridge Summit's 51.8% 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 Blue Ridge Summit's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Blue Ridge Summit's 11,639-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Blue Ridge Summit's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.