Brownstown, IN
Brownstown wildfire risk explained
Brownstown sits at the 12th 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 1,651 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Brownstown at the 13th percentile, close to its 12th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Brownstown (58.5% of 1,651 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 23.5% sit in the Direct zone.
Brownstown against the rest of the country
Brownstown's 62nd-percentile standing inside Indiana outpaces its 12th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Brownstown ranks 27,633 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,592 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 366 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
Brownstown and the insurance market
Brownstown's low wildfire rating (12th 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
Because 58.5% of Brownstown's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Brownstown's 27,633-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Brownstown, see the exposure-zones guide.