Grand Tower, IL
Grand Tower wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Grand Tower lands at the 30th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 470 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Grand Tower at the 31st percentile, close to its 30th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 82.8% of Grand Tower's 470 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 17% Direct and 0.2% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Grand Tower against the rest of the country
Grand Tower's 81st-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 30th 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, Grand Tower ranks 21,927 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,870 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 284 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Grand Tower and the insurance market
At the 30th national percentile, Grand Tower rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Grand Tower (82.8% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Grand Tower's figures come from
Grand Tower's 30th-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 Grand Tower's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.