Nichols, WI
How exposed is Nichols to wildfire?
Nichols's 180 buildings earn a 19th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Nichols at the 19th percentile, close to its 19th-percentile risk score.
Where Nichols's buildings actually sit
Most of Nichols's buildings (70%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Nichols compares
There's little gap between Nichols's 19th national percentile and its 28th percentile inside Wisconsin, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Nichols ranks 25,515 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,656 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 584 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Nichols
At the 19th national percentile, Nichols rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Nichols
Because 70% of Nichols's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Nichols's figures come from
Nichols's 19th-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 Nichols's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.