Cave-In-Rock, IL
How exposed is Cave-In-Rock to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Cave-In-Rock at the 43rd national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 233 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cave-In-Rock at the 46th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Cave-In-Rock's buildings actually sit
233 buildings are counted in Cave-In-Rock, and 70% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 30% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
How Cave-In-Rock compares
Compare Cave-In-Rock's two percentiles: 95th within Illinois, only 43rd nationally — a gap of 52 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cave-In-Rock ranks 17,861 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,697 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 70 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cave-In-Rock
Cave-In-Rock's elevated wildfire rating (43rd 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
Cave-In-Rock's 70% 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
Cave-In-Rock's 43rd-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 Cave-In-Rock, see the exposure-zones guide.