Brussels, IL
How exposed is Brussels to wildfire?
Brussels sits at the 10th 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 134 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Brussels at the 10th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Brussels's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 74.6% of Brussels's 134 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 23.9% Direct and 1.5% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Brussels ranks
Within Illinois, Brussels ranks higher (44th percentile) than it does nationally (10th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Brussels ranks 28,261 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,527 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 808 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Brussels and the insurance market
Brussels's low wildfire rating (10th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Brussels (74.6% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Brussels's 10th-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 Brussels, see the exposure-zones guide.