West Hills, PA
How exposed is West Hills to wildfire?
USFS scores West Hills at the 36th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 696 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, West Hills's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 37th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of West Hills's buildings (53.9%) 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.
West Hills against the rest of the country
Compare West Hills's two percentiles: 51st within Pennsylvania, only 36th nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Hills ranks 20,279 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,708 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 969 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
West Hills's moderate wildfire rating (36th 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 West Hills
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in West Hills (53.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where West Hills's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 696 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for West Hills. The exposure-zones guide covers what West Hills's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.