Plum, PA
Plum, PA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Plum's 11,747 buildings earn a 30th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Plum at the 30th 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 Plum's buildings (68%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 11,747 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Plum against the rest of the country
Plum's risk sits at a similar level relative to Pennsylvania (37th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (30th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Plum ranks 22,202 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,330 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,248 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
Plum's moderate rating (30th 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 Plum
Plum's 68% 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 Plum's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 11,747 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Plum. The exposure-zones guide covers what Plum's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.