New Salem, IL
How exposed is New Salem to wildfire?
New Salem sits at the 24th 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 128 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 New Salem at the 24th percentile, close to its 24th-percentile risk score.
Where New Salem's buildings actually sit
128 buildings are counted in New Salem, and 44.5% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 10.9% in Direct exposure or the 44.5% rated Minimal.
New Salem against the rest of the country
Compare New Salem's two percentiles: 68th within Illinois, only 24th nationally — a gap of 45 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, New Salem ranks 24,071 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,791 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 460 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
New Salem and the insurance market
New Salem's moderate rating (24th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in New Salem
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in New Salem (44.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
New Salem's 24th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond New Salem, see the exposure-zones guide.