Harriman, NY
How exposed is Harriman to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Harriman at the 45th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 540 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Harriman at the 44th percentile, close to its 45th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 70.4% of Harriman's 540 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 29.6% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Harriman compares
Harriman's 90th-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 45th 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, Harriman ranks 17,278 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,723 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 132 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Harriman's elevated wildfire rating (45th 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
Harriman's 70.4% 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
Harriman's 45th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Harriman, see the exposure-zones guide.