Paloma, IL
Paloma wildfire risk explained
Paloma's 116 buildings earn a 18th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Paloma at the 18th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
116 buildings are counted in Paloma, and 89.7% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 10.3% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
How Paloma compares
Within Illinois, Paloma ranks higher (58th percentile) than it does nationally (18th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Paloma ranks 25,835 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,351 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 601 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 18th national percentile, Paloma rates low 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
Because 89.7% of Paloma's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Paloma's figures come from
Paloma's 18th-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 Paloma's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.