Chatham, IL
How exposed is Chatham to wildfire?
Chatham's 5,553 buildings earn a 8th-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, Chatham's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 8th percentile nationally.
Where Chatham's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 93.9% of Chatham's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 6.1% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 5,553 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Chatham compares
Compare Chatham's two percentiles: 37th within Illinois, only 8th nationally — a gap of 29 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chatham ranks 29,048 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,102 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 909 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Chatham
At the 8th national percentile, Chatham rates low 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
Chatham's 93.9% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Chatham's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 5,553 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Chatham. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chatham's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.