Vermont, IL
How exposed is Vermont to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Vermont at the 20th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 515 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Vermont at the 20th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Vermont's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Vermont's buildings (88.9%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Vermont ranks
Compare Vermont's two percentiles: 62nd within Illinois, only 20th nationally — a gap of 42 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Vermont ranks 25,145 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,098 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 552 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
Vermont's moderate wildfire rating (20th 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
Vermont's 88.9% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 515 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Vermont. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Vermont, see the exposure-zones guide.