South Elgin, IL
South Elgin, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores South Elgin at the 33rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 7,040 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, South Elgin's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 32nd percentile nationally.
South Elgin's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 96.9% of South Elgin's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 3.1% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 7,040 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How South Elgin compares
Within Illinois, South Elgin ranks higher (83rd percentile) than it does nationally (33rd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Elgin ranks 21,267 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,436 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 246 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
South Elgin and the insurance market
At the 33rd national percentile, South Elgin rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 96.9% of South Elgin outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 7,040 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for South Elgin. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond South Elgin, see the exposure-zones guide.