Hancock, NY
Hancock wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Hancock lands at the 19th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 621 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Hancock at the 18th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Hancock's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Hancock (71.7% of 621 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 28.3% sit in the Direct zone.
Hancock against the rest of the country
Hancock's 43rd-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 19th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hancock ranks 25,630 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,546 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 739 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Hancock and the insurance market
Hancock's low wildfire rating (19th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Hancock (71.7% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hancock's 25,630-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Hancock, see the exposure-zones guide.