Gilson, IL
Gilson, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Gilson at the 8th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 146 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gilson at the 8th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Gilson's buildings actually sit
Most of Gilson's buildings (76% of 146) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Gilson against the rest of the country
Compare Gilson's two percentiles: 37th within Illinois, only 8th nationally — a gap of 29 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gilson ranks 29,114 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,014 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 915 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Gilson and the insurance market
Gilson's low rating (8th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Gilson
Gilson's 76% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Gilson's 29,114-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Gilson, see the exposure-zones guide.