Marcellus, NY
Marcellus wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Marcellus lands at the 9th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 721 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Marcellus's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 9th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Marcellus's buildings (58%) 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 Marcellus compares
Marcellus scores 9th nationally and 22nd within New York — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Marcellus ranks 28,599 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,441 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 1,014 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Marcellus
Marcellus's low wildfire rating (9th 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
Because 58% of Marcellus'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
Marcellus's 9th-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 Marcellus, see the exposure-zones guide.