Madison, IN
How exposed is Madison to wildfire?
Madison's 6,047 buildings earn a 19th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Madison at the 20th percentile, close to its 19th-percentile risk score.
Madison's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Madison's buildings (67.4%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 6,047 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Madison against the rest of the country
Madison's 77th-percentile standing inside Indiana outpaces its 19th 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, Madison ranks 25,491 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,860 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 226 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Madison's low rating (19th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Madison (67.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Madison's 19th-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 Madison, see the exposure-zones guide.