Vistula, IN
Vistula wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Vistula at the 6th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 189 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Vistula at the 6th percentile, close to its 6th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 69.8% of Vistula's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0% Indirect share and far above its 30.2% Minimal share — a profile where 132 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Vistula compares
Compare Vistula's two percentiles: 42nd within Indiana, only 6th nationally — a gap of 36 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Vistula ranks 29,594 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,277 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 565 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Vistula's low rating (6th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Vistula's 69.8% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Vistula's figures come from
Vistula's 6th-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 Vistula's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.