Elberta, PA
Elberta wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Elberta at the 59th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 179 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 Elberta at the 57th percentile, close to its 59th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Elberta: 100% of its 179 buildings, versus 0% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Elberta against the rest of the country
Compare Elberta's two percentiles: 96th within Pennsylvania, only 59th nationally — a gap of 36 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elberta ranks 12,866 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,686 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 89 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Elberta and the insurance market
Elberta's elevated wildfire rating (59th 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.
Hardening a home in Elberta
Because Direct exposure dominates in Elberta (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 179 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Elberta. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Elberta, see the exposure-zones guide.