Ridgeway, WI
Ridgeway wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Ridgeway at the 37th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 371 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 Ridgeway at the 39th percentile, close to its 37th-percentile risk score.
Where Ridgeway's buildings actually sit
70.9% of Ridgeway's 371 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 29.1% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Ridgeway ranks
Compare Ridgeway's two percentiles: 87th within Wisconsin, only 37th nationally — a gap of 50 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ridgeway ranks 19,874 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,851 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 106 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Ridgeway and the insurance market
Ridgeway's moderate rating (37th 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 Ridgeway
Ridgeway's 70.9% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Ridgeway's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ridgeway's 19,874-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ridgeway's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.