Channel Lake, IL
Channel Lake wildfire risk explained
Channel Lake's 1,291 buildings earn a 45th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Channel Lake at the 45th percentile, close to its 45th-percentile risk score.
Channel Lake's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 45.4% of Channel Lake's 1,291 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 54.6% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Channel Lake ranks
Compare Channel Lake's two percentiles: 96th within Illinois, only 45th nationally — a gap of 51 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Channel Lake ranks 17,295 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,110 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 55 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
At the 45th national percentile, Channel Lake rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 54.6% of Channel Lake 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,291 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Channel Lake. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Channel Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.