Swissvale, PA
How exposed is Swissvale to wildfire?
USFS scores Swissvale at the 21st national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 3,637 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Swissvale at the 22nd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Swissvale's building exposure, zone by zone
Swissvale rates 98.5% Minimal exposure against just 1.5% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 3,637 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Swissvale compares
Swissvale scores 21st nationally and 23rd 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, Swissvale ranks 24,942 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,611 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,540 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Swissvale
Swissvale's moderate rating (21st 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
Swissvale's 98.5% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Swissvale's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,637 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Swissvale. The exposure-zones guide covers what Swissvale's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.