Ithaca, NY
Ithaca, NY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Ithaca lands at the 15th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 6,087 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ithaca's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 15th percentile nationally.
Ithaca's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Ithaca'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. At 6,087 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Ithaca against the rest of the country
Ithaca's 35th-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 15th 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, Ithaca ranks 26,798 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,844 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 834 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ithaca
Ithaca's low wildfire rating (15th 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
Ithaca's 69.7% 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
Ithaca's 15th-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 Ithaca, see the exposure-zones guide.