Leicester, NY
Leicester wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Leicester lands at the 5th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 259 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Leicester at the 5th percentile, close to its 5th-percentile risk score.
Where Leicester's buildings actually sit
259 buildings are counted in Leicester, and 65.6% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 32.4% rated Minimal.
Where Leicester ranks
Leicester's risk sits at a similar level relative to New York (5th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (5th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Leicester ranks 29,955 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,861 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 1,227 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
Leicester's low wildfire rating (5th 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
Leicester's 65.6% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Leicester's figures come from
Leicester's 5th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Leicester's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.