McCook, IL
McCook wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, McCook 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 414 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks McCook at the 32nd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 0.2% of McCook's 414 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 99.8% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
McCook against the rest of the country
Compare McCook's two percentiles: 80th within Illinois, only 30th nationally — a gap of 50 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, McCook ranks 21,990 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,941 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 290 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
McCook and the insurance market
McCook's moderate wildfire rating (30th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
McCook's 99.8% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 414 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for McCook. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond McCook, see the exposure-zones guide.