Melvina, WI
Melvina wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Melvina at the 33rd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 68 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Melvina at the 35th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Melvina's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Melvina: 66.2% of its 68 buildings, versus 33.8% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Melvina against the rest of the country
Compare Melvina's two percentiles: 75th within Wisconsin, only 33rd nationally — a gap of 42 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Melvina ranks 21,103 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,369 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 202 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Melvina and the insurance market
Melvina's moderate rating (33rd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Melvina's 66.2% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Melvina's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 68 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Melvina. The exposure-zones guide covers what Melvina's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.