Pekin, OH
How exposed is Pekin to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Pekin lands at the 36th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 219 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Pekin at the 38th 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 56.6% of Pekin's 219 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 43.4% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Pekin compares
Compare Pekin's two percentiles: 80th within Ohio, only 36th nationally — a gap of 43 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pekin ranks 20,054 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,168 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 258 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
Pekin and the insurance market
Pekin's moderate rating (36th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Pekin (56.6% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Pekin's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Pekin's 20,054-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pekin's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.