Palos Park, IL
Palos Park, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Palos Park lands at the 46th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 2,227 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Palos Park at the 48th percentile, close to its 46th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 20.2% of Palos Park's 2,227 buildings carry Direct exposure and 19% carry Indirect; the remaining 60.8% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Palos Park against the rest of the country
Palos Park's 97th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 46th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Palos Park ranks 17,076 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,868 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 51 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Palos Park
At the 46th national percentile, Palos Park rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Palos Park
With 60.8% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Palos Park gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Palos Park's figures come from
Palos Park's 46th-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 Palos Park's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.