Cheektowaga, NY
How exposed is Cheektowaga to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Cheektowaga lands at the 23rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 38,324 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Cheektowaga's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 25th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Cheektowaga's buildings (93.8% of 38,324) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 38,324 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Cheektowaga against the rest of the country
Compare Cheektowaga's two percentiles: 50th within New York, only 23rd nationally — a gap of 26 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cheektowaga ranks 24,149 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 264 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 649 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Cheektowaga's moderate rating (23rd 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
Even with 93.8% of Cheektowaga outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Cheektowaga's figures come from
Cheektowaga's 23rd-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 Cheektowaga's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.