Mason, IL
Mason wildfire risk explained
Mason's 271 buildings earn a 9th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Mason'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
Most of Mason's buildings (78.6%) 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.
Where Mason ranks
Within Illinois, Mason ranks higher (41st percentile) than it does nationally (9th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mason ranks 28,639 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,463 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 857 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Mason and the insurance market
Mason's low rating (9th 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 Mason
Because 78.6% of Mason's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Mason's 9th-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 Mason, see the exposure-zones guide.