Chief Lake, WI
Chief Lake, WI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Chief Lake lands at the 18th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 573 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Chief Lake at the 17th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Chief Lake's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 96.5% of Chief Lake's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 2.3% Indirect share and far above its 1.2% Minimal share — a profile where 553 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Chief Lake against the rest of the country
Chief Lake's risk sits at a similar level relative to Wisconsin (26th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (18th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chief Lake ranks 25,734 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,205 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 601 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
Chief Lake's low rating (18th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Chief Lake's 96.5% 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.
Where Chief Lake's figures come from
Chief Lake's 18th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chief Lake's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.