Smithboro, IL
Smithboro wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Smithboro at the 3rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 133 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Smithboro at the 3rd percentile, close to its 3rd-percentile risk score.
Smithboro's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 75.2% of Smithboro's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 24.8% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Smithboro against the rest of the country
Smithboro's 20th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 3rd 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, Smithboro ranks 30,567 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,573 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,165 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Smithboro and the insurance market
Smithboro's low rating (3rd 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 Smithboro
With 75.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Smithboro gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Smithboro's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Smithboro's 30,567-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Smithboro's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.