Cerro Gordo, IL
Cerro Gordo, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Cerro Gordo sits at the 1st 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 906 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Cerro Gordo's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 1st percentile nationally.
Where Cerro Gordo's buildings actually sit
Cerro Gordo rates 95.7% Minimal exposure against just 4.3% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 906 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Cerro Gordo compares
Cerro Gordo scores 1st nationally and 8th within Illinois — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cerro Gordo ranks 31,224 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,669 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,316 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Cerro Gordo and the insurance market
Cerro Gordo's low rating (1st percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 95.7% of Cerro Gordo 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.
Where Cerro Gordo's figures come from
Cerro Gordo's 1st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cerro Gordo's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.