Buchanan, NY
Buchanan wildfire risk explained
Buchanan sits at the 42nd 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 994 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Buchanan at the 40th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Buchanan's buildings actually sit
44.5% of Buchanan's 994 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 11.6% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Buchanan compares
Within New York, Buchanan ranks higher (87th percentile) than it does nationally (42nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Buchanan ranks 18,312 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,982 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 169 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Buchanan
Buchanan's elevated rating (42nd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Buchanan's 44.5% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Buchanan's 18,312-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Buchanan, see the exposure-zones guide.