Gary, IN
Gary wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Gary at the 55th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 40,276 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gary's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 56th percentile nationally.
Where Gary's buildings actually sit
Only 2% of Gary's 40,276 buildings carry Direct exposure and 12.8% carry Indirect; the remaining 85.2% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 40,276 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Gary ranks
Within Indiana, Gary ranks higher (99th percentile) than it does nationally (55th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gary ranks 14,271 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 240 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 12 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
Gary and the insurance market
Gary's elevated wildfire rating (55th 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.
Hardening a home in Gary
Even with 85.2% of Gary 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 40,276 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Gary. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Gary, see the exposure-zones guide.