Dale, PA
Dale wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Dale at the 28th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 406 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Dale at the 26th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Dale's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 96.1% of Dale's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 3.9% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Dale ranks
Dale scores 28th nationally and 34th within Pennsylvania — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Dale ranks 22,829 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,103 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,323 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Dale and the insurance market
Dale's moderate wildfire rating (28th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 96.1% of Dale 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 Dale's figures come from
Dale's 28th-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 Dale's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.