Rochester, IL
Rochester wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Rochester lands at the 14th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 1,689 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Rochester's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 14th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Rochester rates 83.5% Minimal exposure against just 10.2% Direct and 6.3% Indirect — of 1,689 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Rochester compares
Within Illinois, Rochester ranks higher (50th percentile) than it does nationally (14th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Rochester ranks 27,254 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,458 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 721 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Rochester and the insurance market
Rochester's low rating (14th 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
With 83.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Rochester gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Rochester's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Rochester's 27,254-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Rochester's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.