Crete, IL
Crete wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Crete at the 47th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 3,809 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Crete at the 49th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Crete's buildings actually sit
93.1% of Crete's 3,809 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 6.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Crete compares
Within Illinois, Crete ranks higher (98th percentile) than it does nationally (47th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Crete ranks 16,666 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,415 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 37 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Crete and the insurance market
At the 47th national percentile, Crete 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 Crete
Even with 93.1% of Crete 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Crete's 16,666-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Crete, see the exposure-zones guide.