WildfireRiskFinder

Honesdale, PA

Honesdale, PA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers

Elevated
47thpercentile nationally

USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Honesdale at the 47th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,216 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)

Separately from the risk score above, Honesdale's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 49th percentile nationally.

What "at risk" means for the buildings here

2,216Total buildings
30.3%Direct exposure
69.7%Indirect exposure
0%Minimal exposure

Most of Honesdale's buildings (69.7%) 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.

How Honesdale compares

Within Pennsylvania, Honesdale ranks higher (76th percentile) than it does nationally (47th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Honesdale ranks 16,653 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,893 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 472 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.

Shopping for coverage in Honesdale

Honesdale's elevated rating (47th 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 Honesdale

Because 69.7% of Honesdale'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.

Where Honesdale's figures come from

Every one of the two percentiles behind Honesdale's 16,653-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Honesdale's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.