Melrose, WI
Melrose wildfire risk explained
Melrose sits at the 22nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 358 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Melrose at the 22nd percentile, close to its 22nd-percentile risk score.
Melrose's building exposure, zone by zone
Melrose rates 79.6% Minimal exposure against just 18.2% Direct and 2.2% Indirect — of 358 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Melrose against the rest of the country
Melrose scores 22nd nationally and 37th within Wisconsin — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Melrose ranks 24,727 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,120 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 513 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Melrose and the insurance market
Melrose's moderate rating (22nd 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
Melrose's 79.6% 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.
Where Melrose's figures come from
Melrose's 22nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Melrose's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.