Berne, IN
Berne wildfire risk explained
Berne sits at the 2nd 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 1,993 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Berne at the 2nd 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
USFS classifies 94% of Berne's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 6% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Berne against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Berne's 2nd national percentile and its 17th percentile inside Indiana, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Berne ranks 30,789 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,497 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 802 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Berne
At the 2nd national percentile, Berne rates low 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
Berne's 94% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Berne's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,993 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Berne. The exposure-zones guide covers what Berne's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.