Prospect Heights, IL
Prospect Heights, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Prospect Heights at the 20th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 3,447 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 Prospect Heights at the 22nd percentile, close to its 20th-percentile risk score.
Prospect Heights's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Prospect Heights's buildings (89.6% of 3,447) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Prospect Heights ranks
Compare Prospect Heights's two percentiles: 62nd within Illinois, only 20th nationally — a gap of 42 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Prospect Heights ranks 25,174 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,847 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 554 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
Prospect Heights's moderate wildfire rating (20th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Prospect Heights
Even with 89.6% of Prospect Heights 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 Prospect Heights's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,447 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Prospect Heights. The exposure-zones guide covers what Prospect Heights's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.