Germantown, IL
Germantown, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Germantown lands at the 8th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 758 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Germantown's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 9th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
90.8% of Germantown's 758 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 8.1% Direct and 1.2% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Germantown compares
Compare Germantown's two percentiles: 38th within Illinois, only 8th nationally — a gap of 30 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Germantown ranks 28,891 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,035 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 886 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Germantown and the insurance market
Germantown's low wildfire rating (8th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Germantown's 90.8% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Germantown's 8th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Germantown, see the exposure-zones guide.