Centralia, IL
How exposed is Centralia to wildfire?
Centralia's 7,250 buildings earn a 16th-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, Centralia's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 17th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
81% of Centralia's 7,250 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 7,250 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Centralia ranks
Centralia's 55th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 16th 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, Centralia ranks 26,336 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,363 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 645 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Centralia's low wildfire rating (16th 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
Even with 81% of Centralia outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Centralia's 16th-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 Centralia, see the exposure-zones guide.