Northfield, IL
Northfield wildfire risk explained
Northfield 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 2,184 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Northfield at the 27th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Northfield's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 92.4% of Northfield's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 7.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Northfield against the rest of the country
Compare Northfield's two percentiles: 69th 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, Northfield ranks 23,942 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,979 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 445 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Northfield
At the 24th national percentile, Northfield rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 92.4% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Northfield gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Northfield's figures come from
Northfield's 24th-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 Northfield's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.