Palmer Heights, PA
How exposed is Palmer Heights to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Palmer Heights at the 10th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 1,621 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Palmer Heights at the 11th 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
Most of Palmer Heights's buildings (82.6% of 1,621) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Palmer Heights ranks
Palmer Heights scores 10th nationally and 8th 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, Palmer Heights ranks 28,381 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,690 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,828 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Palmer Heights
At the 10th national percentile, Palmer Heights rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 82.6% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Palmer Heights gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Palmer Heights's 10th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Palmer Heights, see the exposure-zones guide.