Penn Estates, PA
How exposed is Penn Estates to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Penn Estates at the 55th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,551 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Penn Estates at the 55th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Penn Estates's building exposure, zone by zone
99% of Penn Estates's 1,551 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,536 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 1% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Penn Estates against the rest of the country
Compare Penn Estates's two percentiles: 90th within Pennsylvania, only 55th nationally — a gap of 36 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Penn Estates ranks 14,345 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,952 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 196 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
Penn Estates's elevated rating (55th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Penn Estates
With 99% of Penn Estates in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Penn Estates's 55th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Penn Estates, see the exposure-zones guide.