McCullom Lake, IL
McCullom Lake wildfire risk explained
McCullom Lake's 589 buildings earn a 17th-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, McCullom Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 19th percentile nationally.
Where McCullom Lake's buildings actually sit
83.4% of McCullom Lake's 589 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 16.6% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How McCullom Lake compares
Within Illinois, McCullom Lake ranks higher (57th percentile) than it does nationally (17th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, McCullom Lake ranks 26,085 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,975 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 626 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
McCullom Lake's low wildfire rating (17th 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.
Hardening a home in McCullom Lake
Even with 83.4% of McCullom Lake outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind McCullom Lake's 26,085-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond McCullom Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.