Smithton, PA
How exposed is Smithton to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Smithton at the 35th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 247 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Smithton at the 37th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Smithton's buildings actually sit
Most of Smithton's buildings (97.6%) 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.
How Smithton compares
There's little gap between Smithton's 35th national percentile and its 49th percentile inside Pennsylvania, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Smithton ranks 20,560 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,249 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,013 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
At the 35th national percentile, Smithton rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Smithton (97.6% 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 247 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Smithton. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Smithton, see the exposure-zones guide.