Heidelberg, PA
Heidelberg wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Heidelberg at the 22nd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 735 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Heidelberg at the 23rd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
99.5% of Heidelberg's 735 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 0.5% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Heidelberg compares
Heidelberg scores 22nd nationally and 25th 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, Heidelberg ranks 24,592 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,280 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,500 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Heidelberg and the insurance market
At the 22nd national percentile, Heidelberg rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 99.5% of Heidelberg's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Heidelberg's 22nd-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 Heidelberg, see the exposure-zones guide.