Mather, PA
Mather wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Mather at the 39th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 383 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Mather at the 41st national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Mather's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Mather's buildings (75.5%) 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 Mather compares
Within Pennsylvania, Mather ranks higher (61st percentile) than it does nationally (39th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mather ranks 19,145 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,574 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 777 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Mather and the insurance market
Mather's moderate rating (39th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Mather's 75.5% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 383 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Mather. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Mather, see the exposure-zones guide.