Carthage, IL
Carthage, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Carthage at the 13th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 1,666 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 Carthage at the 13th percentile, close to its 13th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
82.1% of Carthage's 1,666 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 1.5% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Carthage ranks
Carthage's 50th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 13th 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, Carthage ranks 27,282 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,536 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 722 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Carthage
Carthage's low rating (13th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With 82.1% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Carthage gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Carthage's 13th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Carthage, see the exposure-zones guide.