Lancaster, OH
Lancaster wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Lancaster at the 22nd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 18,558 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Lancaster's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 24th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
63.7% of Lancaster's 18,558 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 15.3% Direct and 21% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 18,558 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Lancaster against the rest of the country
Within Ohio, Lancaster ranks higher (54th percentile) than it does nationally (22nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lancaster ranks 24,463 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 768 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 577 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
Lancaster and the insurance market
Lancaster's moderate wildfire rating (22nd 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Lancaster (63.7% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Lancaster'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 Lancaster, see the exposure-zones guide.