West Frankfort, IL
West Frankfort wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts West Frankfort at the 33rd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 5,014 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks West Frankfort at the 35th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
64.5% of West Frankfort's 5,014 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 7.5% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 5,014 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
West Frankfort against the rest of the country
West Frankfort's 85th-percentile standing inside Illinois outpaces its 33rd 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, West Frankfort ranks 21,017 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,423 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 225 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
West Frankfort and the insurance market
At the 33rd national percentile, West Frankfort rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
West Frankfort's 64.5% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where West Frankfort's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 5,014 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for West Frankfort. The exposure-zones guide covers what West Frankfort's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.