Waukau, WI
How exposed is Waukau to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Waukau at the 45th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 256 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Waukau at the 46th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Waukau's building exposure, zone by zone
72.7% of Waukau's 256 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 186 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 27.3% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Waukau against the rest of the country
Compare Waukau's two percentiles: 96th within Wisconsin, only 45th nationally — a gap of 50 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Waukau ranks 17,289 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,967 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 36 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Waukau and the insurance market
Waukau's elevated wildfire rating (45th 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
With 72.7% of Waukau in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Waukau's 17,289-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Waukau, see the exposure-zones guide.