Ellwood City, PA
How exposed is Ellwood City to wildfire?
USFS scores Ellwood City at the 34th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 3,942 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ellwood City's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 35th percentile nationally.
Where Ellwood City's buildings actually sit
Most of Ellwood City's buildings (93.7%) 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.
Where Ellwood City ranks
There's little gap between Ellwood City's 34th national percentile and its 47th percentile inside Pennsylvania, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ellwood City ranks 20,871 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,296 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,060 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Ellwood City and the insurance market
Ellwood City's moderate rating (34th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Ellwood City's 93.7% 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 3,942 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Ellwood City. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Ellwood City, see the exposure-zones guide.