St. Augustine, IL
St. Augustine wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, St. Augustine lands at the 5th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 126 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks St. Augustine at the 5th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of St. Augustine's buildings (74.6% of 126) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
How St. Augustine compares
St. Augustine's 30th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 5th 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, St. Augustine ranks 29,839 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,884 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,015 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
St. Augustine and the insurance market
St. Augustine's low wildfire rating (5th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 74.6% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, St. Augustine gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
St. Augustine's 5th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond St. Augustine, see the exposure-zones guide.