Worcester, NY
Worcester, NY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Worcester at the 19th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 818 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Worcester at the 19th percentile, close to its 19th-percentile risk score.
Worcester's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Worcester's 818 counted buildings, 74.9% 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.
Worcester against the rest of the country
Within New York, Worcester ranks higher (43rd percentile) than it does nationally (19th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Worcester ranks 25,600 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,474 by building count (1 is largest). Within New York alone, it ranks 737 of 1,289 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New York on its state page.
Worcester and the insurance market
Worcester's low wildfire rating (19th 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Worcester (74.9%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 818 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Worcester. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Worcester, see the exposure-zones guide.