Erie, IL
How exposed is Erie to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Erie lands at the 28th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 1,017 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Erie's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 28th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 92.1% of Erie's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 7.2% Direct and 0.7% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Erie ranks
Erie's 76th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 28th 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, Erie ranks 22,777 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,821 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 343 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Erie
At the 28th national percentile, Erie rates moderate 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 Erie
Even with 92.1% of Erie 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 Erie's 22,777-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Erie, see the exposure-zones guide.