North Lake, WI
How exposed is North Lake to wildfire?
North Lake sits at the 36th 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 168 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, North Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 38th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of North Lake's buildings (57.7%) 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 North Lake compares
Compare North Lake's two percentiles: 85th within Wisconsin, only 36th nationally — a gap of 49 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, North Lake ranks 20,158 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,119 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 125 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
North Lake and the insurance market
North Lake's moderate rating (36th 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 North Lake
North Lake's 57.7% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
North Lake's 36th-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 North Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.