Pottsville, PA
How exposed is Pottsville to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Pottsville at the 52nd national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 3,772 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Pottsville at the 51st national percentile — 1 points below 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 Pottsville's buildings (83.1%) 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.
Where Pottsville ranks
Pottsville's 86th-percentile standing inside Pennsylvania outpaces its 52nd national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pottsville ranks 15,103 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,451 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 275 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Pottsville and the insurance market
Pottsville's elevated wildfire rating (52nd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Pottsville
Pottsville's 83.1% 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 Pottsville's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,772 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Pottsville. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pottsville's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.