West Chazy, NY
West Chazy wildfire risk explained
USFS scores West Chazy at the 10th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 429 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks West Chazy at the 11th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of West Chazy's 429 counted buildings, 58% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
West Chazy against the rest of the country
West Chazy scores 10th nationally and 24th within New York — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Chazy ranks 28,247 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,675 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 979 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in West Chazy
At the 10th national percentile, West Chazy rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in West Chazy (58%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where West Chazy's figures come from
West Chazy's 10th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what West Chazy's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.