Chelsea, WI
How exposed is Chelsea to wildfire?
USFS scores Chelsea at the 17th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 80 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Chelsea's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 17th percentile nationally.
Chelsea's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 100% of Chelsea's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 80 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Chelsea against the rest of the country
Chelsea scores 17th nationally and 22nd within Wisconsin — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chelsea ranks 26,207 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,905 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 628 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Chelsea's low wildfire rating (17th 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
Chelsea's 100% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Chelsea's 26,207-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Chelsea, see the exposure-zones guide.