Alton, IL
How exposed is Alton to wildfire?
USFS scores Alton at the 17th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 13,848 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Alton at the 18th national percentile — 1 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
73.3% of Alton's 13,848 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 11.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 13,848 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Alton compares
Alton's 56th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 17th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Alton ranks 26,245 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,091 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 640 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
Alton's low rating (17th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 73.3% of Alton outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Alton's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 13,848 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Alton. The exposure-zones guide covers what Alton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.