Waupaca, WI
Waupaca, WI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Waupaca at the 38th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 3,000 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Waupaca's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 38th percentile nationally.
Waupaca's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 56.9% of Waupaca's 3,000 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 27.2% Direct and 15.9% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Waupaca compares
Waupaca's 88th-percentile standing inside Wisconsin outpaces its 38th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Waupaca ranks 19,590 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,435 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 95 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Waupaca and the insurance market
Waupaca's moderate wildfire rating (38th 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
Because 56.9% of Waupaca's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Waupaca's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Waupaca's 19,590-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Waupaca's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.