Mentone, IN
Mentone, IN's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Mentone sits at the 2nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 516 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Mentone at the 2nd national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
82.4% of Mentone's 516 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 17.6% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Mentone compares
There's little gap between Mentone's 2nd national percentile and its 15th percentile inside Indiana, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mentone ranks 30,852 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,085 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 819 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
Mentone and the insurance market
Mentone's low rating (2nd 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
Mentone's 82.4% 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 Mentone's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Mentone's 30,852-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Mentone's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.