Viroqua, WI
How exposed is Viroqua to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Viroqua lands at the 18th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 3,116 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 Viroqua at the 19th percentile, close to its 18th-percentile risk score.
Viroqua's building exposure, zone by zone
89.6% of Viroqua's 3,116 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 9.8% Direct and 0.6% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Viroqua compares
Viroqua scores 18th nationally and 23rd within Wisconsin — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Viroqua ranks 26,019 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,273 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 621 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Viroqua's low wildfire rating (18th 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
Viroqua's 89.6% 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
Viroqua's 18th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Viroqua, see the exposure-zones guide.