West Bend, WI
West Bend wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts West Bend at the 34th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 10,797 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, West Bend's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 36th percentile nationally.
Where West Bend's buildings actually sit
89.1% of West Bend's 10,797 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 8.8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 10,797 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where West Bend ranks
Compare West Bend's two percentiles: 79th within Wisconsin, only 34th nationally — a gap of 45 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Bend ranks 20,788 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,468 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 169 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
West Bend's moderate wildfire rating (34th 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.
Hardening a home in West Bend
Even with 89.1% of West Bend outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where West Bend's figures come from
West Bend's 34th-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 West Bend's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.