Niota, IL
How exposed is Niota to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Niota lands at the 39th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 95 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Niota at the 40th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Niota's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 9.5% of Niota's 95 buildings carry Direct exposure and 2.1% carry Indirect; the remaining 88.4% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Niota ranks
Within Illinois, Niota ranks higher (91st percentile) than it does nationally (39th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Niota ranks 19,248 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,256 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 127 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Niota and the insurance market
At the 39th national percentile, Niota rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Niota's 88.4% 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 Niota's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 95 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Niota. The exposure-zones guide covers what Niota's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.