Bowen, IL
How exposed is Bowen to wildfire?
Bowen's 348 buildings earn a 3rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bowen's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 3rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 99.4% of Bowen's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 0.6% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Bowen against the rest of the country
Compare Bowen's two percentiles: 22nd within Illinois, only 3rd nationally — a gap of 19 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bowen ranks 30,435 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,359 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,123 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Bowen and the insurance market
At the 3rd national percentile, Bowen rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Bowen
Bowen's 99.4% 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 Bowen's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bowen's 30,435-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bowen's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.