Blue River, WI
Blue River wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Blue River at the 32nd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 334 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Blue River at the 33rd percentile, close to its 32nd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
90.4% of Blue River's 334 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 9.6% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Blue River compares
Within Wisconsin, Blue River ranks higher (72nd percentile) than it does nationally (32nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Blue River ranks 21,415 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,729 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 226 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Blue River and the insurance market
Blue River's moderate wildfire rating (32nd 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 Blue River
Blue River's 90.4% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Blue River's 32nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Blue River, see the exposure-zones guide.