Polo, IL
Polo, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Polo at the 3rd national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 1,463 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Polo at the 3rd percentile, close to its 3rd-percentile risk score.
Polo's building exposure, zone by zone
Polo rates 93.6% Minimal exposure against just 6.4% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 1,463 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Polo compares
Within Illinois, Polo ranks higher (19th percentile) than it does nationally (3rd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Polo ranks 30,600 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,336 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,171 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Polo and the insurance market
Polo's low rating (3rd 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
Even with 93.6% of Polo 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.
Where Polo's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,463 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Polo. The exposure-zones guide covers what Polo's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.