Augusta, IL
How exposed is Augusta to wildfire?
USFS scores Augusta at the 9th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 431 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 Augusta at the 9th percentile, close to its 9th-percentile risk score.
Augusta's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 2.6% of Augusta's 431 buildings carry Direct exposure and 13% carry Indirect; the remaining 84.5% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Augusta against the rest of the country
Compare Augusta's two percentiles: 41st within Illinois, only 9th nationally — a gap of 32 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Augusta ranks 28,637 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,621 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 855 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
Augusta's low wildfire rating (9th 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 Augusta
Even with 84.5% of Augusta 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 Augusta's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 431 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Augusta. The exposure-zones guide covers what Augusta's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.