New Castle, PA
New Castle wildfire risk explained
USFS scores New Castle at the 30th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 11,034 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, New Castle's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 30th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of New Castle's buildings (83.9%) 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 11,034 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How New Castle compares
There's little gap between New Castle's 30th national percentile and its 38th percentile inside Pennsylvania, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, New Castle ranks 22,074 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,439 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,229 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in New Castle
New Castle's moderate rating (30th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in New Castle (83.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where New Castle's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 11,034 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for New Castle. The exposure-zones guide covers what New Castle's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.