Elkhart, IL
How exposed is Elkhart to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Elkhart lands at the 5th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 377 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Elkhart at the 5th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 14.3% of Elkhart's 377 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 85.7% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Elkhart against the rest of the country
Elkhart's 29th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 5th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elkhart ranks 29,898 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,714 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,023 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Elkhart
At the 5th national percentile, Elkhart rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 85.7% of Elkhart 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 377 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Elkhart. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Elkhart, see the exposure-zones guide.