Alden, IL
How exposed is Alden to wildfire?
USFS scores Alden at the 31st national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 111 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Alden at the 31st national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Alden's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 94.6% of Alden's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 5.4% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 105 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Alden against the rest of the country
Within Illinois, Alden ranks higher (81st percentile) than it does nationally (31st) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Alden ranks 21,737 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,577 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 275 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 31st national percentile, Alden rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Alden's 94.6% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Alden's 31st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Alden, see the exposure-zones guide.