Chestnut, IL
Chestnut wildfire risk explained
Chestnut's 160 buildings earn a 4th-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, Chestnut's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 4th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Chestnut rates 94.4% Minimal exposure against just 5.6% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 160 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Chestnut against the rest of the country
Within Illinois, Chestnut ranks higher (25th percentile) than it does nationally (4th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chestnut ranks 30,151 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,421 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,082 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Chestnut and the insurance market
At the 4th national percentile, Chestnut rates low 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 Chestnut
Even with 94.4% of Chestnut 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 Chestnut's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 160 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Chestnut. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chestnut's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.