West Elizabeth, PA
West Elizabeth wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts West Elizabeth at the 28th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 322 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, West Elizabeth's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 29th percentile nationally.
West Elizabeth's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of West Elizabeth's buildings (97.8%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where West Elizabeth ranks
West Elizabeth's risk sits at a similar level relative to Pennsylvania (34th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (28th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Elizabeth ranks 22,734 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,046 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,313 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
West Elizabeth and the insurance market
At the 28th national percentile, West Elizabeth rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in West Elizabeth
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in West Elizabeth (97.8% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind West Elizabeth's 22,734-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond West Elizabeth, see the exposure-zones guide.