Elizabeth, PA
Elizabeth, PA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Elizabeth sits at the 28th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 815 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Elizabeth at the 30th percentile, close to its 28th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Elizabeth's buildings (98.4%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Elizabeth against the rest of the country
Elizabeth scores 28th nationally and 35th 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, Elizabeth ranks 22,546 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,507 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,295 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Elizabeth'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.
What would actually reduce this score
Elizabeth's 98.4% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 815 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Elizabeth. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Elizabeth, see the exposure-zones guide.