Chinchilla, PA
Chinchilla wildfire risk explained
Chinchilla's 1,041 buildings earn a 49th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Chinchilla at the 49th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
57.5% of Chinchilla's 1,041 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 599 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 42.5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Chinchilla compares
Chinchilla's 80th-percentile standing inside Pennsylvania outpaces its 49th 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, Chinchilla ranks 16,018 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,650 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 389 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Chinchilla
Chinchilla's elevated wildfire rating (49th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
With 57.5% of Chinchilla 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,041 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Chinchilla. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Chinchilla, see the exposure-zones guide.