Fairbury, IL
How exposed is Fairbury to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Fairbury at the 4th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 2,104 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Fairbury's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 4th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 4.6% of Fairbury's 2,104 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 95.4% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Fairbury against the rest of the country
Within Illinois, Fairbury ranks higher (24th percentile) than it does nationally (4th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fairbury ranks 30,279 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,180 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,102 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Fairbury
At the 4th national percentile, Fairbury rates low 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 Fairbury
Even with 95.4% of Fairbury 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.
Where Fairbury's figures come from
Fairbury's 4th-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 Fairbury's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.