Washington, PA
Washington wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Washington at the 29th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 5,468 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Washington's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 31st percentile nationally.
Washington's building exposure, zone by zone
70.2% of Washington's 5,468 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 1.8% Direct and 28% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 5,468 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Washington against the rest of the country
Washington's risk sits at a similar level relative to Pennsylvania (36th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (29th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Washington ranks 22,394 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,158 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,276 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Washington and the insurance market
Washington's moderate wildfire rating (29th 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 Washington
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Washington (70.2% 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
Washington's 29th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Washington, see the exposure-zones guide.