Petersburg, IN
How exposed is Petersburg to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Petersburg lands at the 17th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 1,435 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Petersburg's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 17th percentile nationally.
Petersburg's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 74.2% of Petersburg's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 25.9% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
How Petersburg compares
Compare Petersburg's two percentiles: 71st within Indiana, only 17th nationally — a gap of 55 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Petersburg ranks 26,248 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,456 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 278 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Petersburg's low rating (17th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Petersburg
Even with 74.2% of Petersburg outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,435 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Petersburg. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Petersburg, see the exposure-zones guide.