Sheldon, IL
Sheldon, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Sheldon lands at the 0th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 754 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Sheldon at the 0th percentile, close to its 0th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
92% of Sheldon's 754 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Sheldon ranks
Sheldon's risk sits at a similar level relative to Illinois (2nd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (0th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sheldon ranks 31,488 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,076 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,431 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Sheldon
Sheldon's low rating (0th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Sheldon's 92% 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Sheldon's 31,488-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Sheldon, see the exposure-zones guide.