Ontario, WI
Ontario, WI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Ontario at the 34th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 320 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Ontario at the 36th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Ontario's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Ontario (59.7% of 320 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 40.3% sit in the Direct zone.
How Ontario compares
Compare Ontario's two percentiles: 78th within Wisconsin, only 34th nationally — a gap of 44 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ontario ranks 20,880 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,106 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 180 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Ontario's moderate rating (34th 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
Ontario's 59.7% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ontario's 20,880-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Ontario, see the exposure-zones guide.