Altona, IL
Altona wildfire risk explained
Altona sits at the 1st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 388 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Altona at the 1st national percentile — 0 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
Altona rates 82% Minimal exposure against just 18% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 388 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Altona ranks
Altona scores 1st nationally and 10th within Illinois — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Altona ranks 31,159 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,442 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,298 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Altona
Altona's low wildfire rating (1st 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
With 82% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Altona gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Altona's 1st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Altona, see the exposure-zones guide.