Thomson, IL
Thomson, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Thomson lands at the 19th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 450 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 Thomson at the 17th percentile, close to its 19th-percentile risk score.
Where Thomson's buildings actually sit
Most of Thomson's buildings (88.4% of 450) 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.
Where Thomson ranks
Within Illinois, Thomson ranks higher (61st percentile) than it does nationally (19th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Thomson ranks 25,393 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,275 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 570 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Thomson and the insurance market
Thomson's low wildfire rating (19th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 88.4% of Thomson 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 450 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Thomson. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Thomson, see the exposure-zones guide.