Cortland, NY
How exposed is Cortland to wildfire?
USFS scores Cortland at the 11th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 5,367 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Cortland at the 11th percentile, close to its 11th-percentile risk score.
Cortland's building exposure, zone by zone
49.5% of Cortland's 5,367 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 6.2% Direct and 44.3% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 5,367 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Cortland compares
Cortland's risk sits at a similar level relative to New York (25th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (11th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cortland ranks 28,180 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,214 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 965 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
Cortland's low rating (11th 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
Cortland's 49.5% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Cortland's figures come from
Cortland's 11th-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 Cortland's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.