Saranac Lake, NY
Saranac Lake wildfire risk explained
Saranac Lake's 1,970 buildings earn a 18th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Saranac Lake at the 18th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Saranac Lake's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Saranac Lake's buildings (58.1%) 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 Saranac Lake ranks
Within New York, Saranac Lake ranks higher (42nd percentile) than it does nationally (18th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Saranac Lake ranks 25,725 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,563 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 746 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Saranac Lake and the insurance market
Saranac Lake's low wildfire rating (18th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Saranac Lake (58.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,970 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Saranac Lake. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Saranac Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.