Delaware Water Gap, PA
Delaware Water Gap, PA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Delaware Water Gap sits at the 60th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 362 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Delaware Water Gap's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 58th percentile nationally.
Delaware Water Gap's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Delaware Water Gap: 76.2% of its 362 buildings, versus 23.8% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Delaware Water Gap against the rest of the country
Compare Delaware Water Gap's two percentiles: 97th within Pennsylvania, only 60th nationally — a gap of 36 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Delaware Water Gap ranks 12,524 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,026 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 68 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Delaware Water Gap and the insurance market
Delaware Water Gap's 60th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 76.2% of Delaware Water Gap 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.
Where Delaware Water Gap's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 362 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Delaware Water Gap. The exposure-zones guide covers what Delaware Water Gap's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.