Onalaska, WI
Onalaska, WI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Onalaska's 6,867 buildings earn a 27th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Onalaska at the 28th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 74.6% of Onalaska's 6,867 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 9.4% Direct and 16% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 6,867 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Onalaska against the rest of the country
Within Wisconsin, Onalaska ranks higher (56th percentile) than it does nationally (27th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Onalaska ranks 22,962 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,523 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 360 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Onalaska
Onalaska's moderate rating (27th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Onalaska (74.6% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,867 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Onalaska. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Onalaska, see the exposure-zones guide.