Joppa, IL
How exposed is Joppa to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Joppa at the 43rd national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 236 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Joppa at the 46th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Joppa's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 57.2% of Joppa's 236 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 42.8% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Joppa against the rest of the country
Compare Joppa's two percentiles: 95th within Illinois, only 43rd nationally — a gap of 52 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Joppa ranks 17,832 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,586 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 69 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Joppa's elevated wildfire rating (43rd 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
Joppa's 57.2% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 236 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Joppa. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Joppa, see the exposure-zones guide.