New Kensington, PA
How exposed is New Kensington to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, New Kensington lands at the 27th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 5,651 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks New Kensington at the 27th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
5,651 buildings are counted in New Kensington, and 95.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 4.8% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal. At 5,651 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
New Kensington against the rest of the country
New Kensington scores 27th nationally and 32nd within Pennsylvania — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, New Kensington ranks 23,052 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,059 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,352 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
New Kensington and the insurance market
New Kensington's moderate wildfire rating (27th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in New Kensington (95.2% 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
New Kensington's 27th-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 New Kensington, see the exposure-zones guide.