Valley Cottage, NY
Valley Cottage, NY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Valley Cottage lands at the 27th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 2,808 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Valley Cottage at the 25th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Valley Cottage's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 40.4% of Valley Cottage's 2,808 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 36.1% Direct and 23.6% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Valley Cottage ranks
Within New York, Valley Cottage ranks higher (57th percentile) than it does nationally (27th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Valley Cottage ranks 22,924 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,752 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 559 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Valley Cottage
Valley Cottage's moderate wildfire rating (27th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Valley Cottage's 40.4% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Valley Cottage's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,808 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Valley Cottage. The exposure-zones guide covers what Valley Cottage's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.