Thayer, IL
Thayer wildfire risk explained
Thayer sits at the 3rd 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 440 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Thayer at the 4th percentile, close to its 3rd-percentile risk score.
Where Thayer's buildings actually sit
Most of Thayer's buildings (90% of 440) 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.
Thayer against the rest of the country
Compare Thayer's two percentiles: 22nd within Illinois, only 3rd nationally — a gap of 18 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Thayer ranks 30,472 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,452 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,136 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Thayer and the insurance market
Thayer's low wildfire rating (3rd 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
Thayer's 90% 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 Thayer's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 440 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Thayer. The exposure-zones guide covers what Thayer's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.