Hanover, PA
Hanover wildfire risk explained
Hanover sits at the 5th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 5,724 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 Hanover at the 6th percentile, close to its 5th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
64.6% of Hanover's 5,724 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 3.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 5,724 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Hanover compares
Hanover's risk sits at a similar level relative to Pennsylvania (3rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (5th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hanover ranks 29,831 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,023 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,940 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Hanover and the insurance market
Hanover's low rating (5th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Hanover
With 64.6% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Hanover gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Hanover's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 5,724 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Hanover. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hanover's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.