West Bay Shore, NY
How exposed is West Bay Shore to wildfire?
West Bay Shore sits at the 46th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,631 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts West Bay Shore at the 41st percentile, close to its 46th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
West Bay Shore rates 91.4% Minimal exposure against just 8.6% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 1,631 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
West Bay Shore against the rest of the country
West Bay Shore's 90th-percentile standing inside New York outpaces its 46th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Bay Shore ranks 17,182 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,649 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 129 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
West Bay Shore and the insurance market
West Bay Shore's elevated wildfire rating (46th 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
West Bay Shore's 91.4% 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 West Bay Shore's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,631 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for West Bay Shore. The exposure-zones guide covers what West Bay Shore's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.