Chesterton, IN
Chesterton, IN's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Chesterton at the 53rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 5,860 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Chesterton at the 56th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Chesterton's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 84.5% of Chesterton's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 13.7% Direct and 1.8% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 5,860 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Chesterton ranks
Within Indiana, Chesterton ranks higher (98th percentile) than it does nationally (53rd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chesterton ranks 14,775 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,937 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 17 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
Chesterton and the insurance market
At the 53rd national percentile, Chesterton rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Chesterton
Chesterton's 84.5% 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 Chesterton's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 5,860 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Chesterton. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chesterton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.