Sheffield, IL
Sheffield wildfire risk explained
Sheffield sits at the 15th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 646 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Sheffield's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 15th percentile nationally.
Where Sheffield's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 90.1% of Sheffield's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 9.9% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Sheffield ranks
Sheffield's 54th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 15th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sheffield ranks 26,716 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,241 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 670 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Sheffield and the insurance market
Sheffield's low wildfire rating (15th 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 Sheffield
Sheffield's 90.1% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Sheffield's figures come from
Sheffield's 15th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Sheffield's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.