Caroga Lake, NY
How exposed is Caroga Lake to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Caroga Lake lands at the 12th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 777 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Caroga Lake at the 12th percentile, close to its 12th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
72.1% of Caroga Lake's 777 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 560 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 25.5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 2.5% are Minimal.
Caroga Lake against the rest of the country
Caroga Lake's 29th-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 12th 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, Caroga Lake ranks 27,708 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,845 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 909 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Caroga Lake and the insurance market
Caroga Lake's low rating (12th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Caroga Lake
With 72.1% of Caroga Lake in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Caroga Lake's figures come from
Caroga Lake's 12th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Caroga Lake's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.