Valparaiso, IN
Valparaiso, IN's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Valparaiso's 12,144 buildings earn a 47th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Valparaiso at the 49th national percentile — 2 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
Only 9.4% of Valparaiso's 12,144 buildings carry Direct exposure and 1.3% carry Indirect; the remaining 89.3% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 12,144 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Valparaiso compares
Within Indiana, Valparaiso ranks higher (97th percentile) than it does nationally (47th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Valparaiso ranks 16,695 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,281 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 34 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Valparaiso
Valparaiso's elevated rating (47th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 89.3% of Valparaiso 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.
Where Valparaiso's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 12,144 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Valparaiso. The exposure-zones guide covers what Valparaiso's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.