St. Marys, PA
St. Marys wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts St. Marys at the 23rd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 7,970 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, St. Marys's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 23rd percentile nationally.
St. Marys's building exposure, zone by zone
56.8% of St. Marys's 7,970 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 4,523 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 43.3% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal. At 7,970 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
St. Marys against the rest of the country
St. Marys scores 23rd nationally and 25th within Pennsylvania — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Marys ranks 24,344 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,122 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,486 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
St. Marys and the insurance market
St. Marys's moderate rating (23rd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
St. Marys's 56.8% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 7,970 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for St. Marys. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond St. Marys, see the exposure-zones guide.