Ritchie, IL
Ritchie wildfire risk explained
Ritchie sits at the 24th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 145 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ritchie's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 25th percentile nationally.
Ritchie's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Ritchie: 83.5% of its 145 buildings, versus 0% Indirect and 16.6% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Ritchie ranks
Compare Ritchie's two percentiles: 69th within Illinois, only 24th nationally — a gap of 45 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ritchie ranks 23,911 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,070 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 443 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
Ritchie's moderate wildfire rating (24th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Ritchie's 83.5% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Ritchie's 24th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Ritchie, see the exposure-zones guide.