Oswego, NY
Oswego wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Oswego at the 9th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 6,690 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Oswego'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
6,690 buildings are counted in Oswego, and 45% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 15.2% in Direct exposure or the 39.9% rated Minimal. At 6,690 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Oswego compares
Oswego's risk sits at a similar level relative to New York (19th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (9th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Oswego ranks 28,814 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,589 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 1,042 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Oswego
Oswego's low rating (9th 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
Because 45% of Oswego'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.
Where Oswego's figures come from
Oswego's 9th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Oswego's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.