Vandalia, IL
How exposed is Vandalia to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Vandalia lands at the 9th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 3,236 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 Vandalia at the 9th percentile, close to its 9th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
81.8% of Vandalia's 3,236 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 11.7% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Vandalia ranks
Within Illinois, Vandalia ranks higher (39th percentile) than it does nationally (9th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Vandalia ranks 28,834 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,124 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 881 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Vandalia's low wildfire rating (9th 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.
Hardening a home in Vandalia
With 81.8% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Vandalia gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Vandalia's figures come from
Vandalia's 9th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Vandalia's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.