Buena Vista, PA
Buena Vista wildfire risk explained
Buena Vista's 175 buildings earn a 34th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Buena Vista's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 35th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
66.3% of Buena Vista's 175 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 33.7% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Buena Vista ranks
There's little gap between Buena Vista's 34th national percentile and its 46th percentile inside Pennsylvania, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Buena Vista ranks 20,906 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,835 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,065 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Buena Vista's moderate rating (34th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 66.3% of Buena Vista's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Buena Vista's 34th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Buena Vista, see the exposure-zones guide.