Suffern, NY
How exposed is Suffern to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Suffern lands at the 42nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 2,180 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Suffern's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 40th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
2,180 buildings are counted in Suffern, and 59.5% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 18.8% in Direct exposure or the 21.7% rated Minimal.
Where Suffern ranks
Compare Suffern's two percentiles: 87th within New York, only 42nd nationally — a gap of 45 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Suffern ranks 18,224 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,991 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 161 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Suffern
Suffern's elevated wildfire rating (42nd 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 Suffern
Because 59.5% of Suffern's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,180 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Suffern. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Suffern, see the exposure-zones guide.