West Salem, IL
West Salem, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts West Salem at the 3rd national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 730 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks West Salem at the 3rd national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where West Salem's buildings actually sit
Most of West Salem's buildings (67.4% of 730) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
How West Salem compares
Compare West Salem's two percentiles: 18th within Illinois, only 3rd nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Salem ranks 30,659 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,331 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,186 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 3rd national percentile, West Salem rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
West Salem's 67.4% 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.
More on how this number was built
West Salem's 3rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond West Salem, see the exposure-zones guide.