Peach Lake, NY
Peach Lake wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Peach Lake at the 40th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 754 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Peach Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 40th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Peach Lake's 754 counted buildings, 65% carry Direct exposure and only 5.3% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Peach Lake against the rest of the country
Compare Peach Lake's two percentiles: 85th within New York, only 40th nationally — a gap of 44 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Peach Lake ranks 18,789 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,082 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 197 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Peach Lake's elevated rating (40th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Peach Lake's 65% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Peach Lake's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Peach Lake's 18,789-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Peach Lake's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.