Chautauqua, NY
Chautauqua wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Chautauqua lands at the 36th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 852 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 Chautauqua at the 37th percentile, close to its 36th-percentile risk score.
Where Chautauqua's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 91.2% of Chautauqua's 852 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 8.1% Direct and 0.7% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Chautauqua against the rest of the country
Chautauqua's 79th-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 36th 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, Chautauqua ranks 20,047 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,150 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 277 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Chautauqua
At the 36th national percentile, Chautauqua rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 91.2% of Chautauqua'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.
Where Chautauqua's figures come from
Chautauqua's 36th-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 Chautauqua's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.