Scranton, PA
How exposed is Scranton to wildfire?
Scranton sits at the 51st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 28,092 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Scranton at the 50th percentile, close to its 51st-percentile risk score.
Where Scranton's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 58.3% of Scranton's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 4.4% Direct and 37.3% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 28,092 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Scranton against the rest of the country
Scranton's 84th-percentile standing inside Pennsylvania outpaces its 51st 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, Scranton ranks 15,454 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 434 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 328 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Scranton and the insurance market
Scranton's elevated rating (51st 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
Even with 58.3% of Scranton outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Scranton's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Scranton's 15,454-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Scranton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.