Northumberland, PA
Northumberland wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Northumberland at the 28th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 1,647 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Northumberland at the 29th national percentile — 1 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
USFS puts 87.5% of Northumberland's 1,647 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 12.5% Direct and 0.1% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Northumberland against the rest of the country
Northumberland's risk sits at a similar level relative to Pennsylvania (34th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (28th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Northumberland ranks 22,732 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,600 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,311 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Northumberland's moderate wildfire rating (28th 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.
Hardening a home in Northumberland
Northumberland's 87.5% 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.
Where Northumberland's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Northumberland's 22,732-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Northumberland's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.