Downs, IL
Downs, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Downs's 605 buildings earn a 10th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Downs at the 10th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Downs's buildings actually sit
85.3% of Downs's 605 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 14.7% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Downs against the rest of the country
Compare Downs's two percentiles: 43rd within Illinois, only 10th nationally — a gap of 33 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Downs ranks 28,448 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,763 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 832 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Downs's low wildfire rating (10th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 85.3% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Downs gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Downs's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Downs's 28,448-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Downs's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.