Wheeler, IL
Wheeler wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Wheeler lands at the 2nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 118 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wheeler at the 2nd percentile, close to its 2nd-percentile risk score.
Wheeler's building exposure, zone by zone
67.8% of Wheeler's 118 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 32.2% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Wheeler ranks
Wheeler's risk sits at a similar level relative to Illinois (15th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (2nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wheeler ranks 30,885 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,235 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,235 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
Wheeler's low wildfire rating (2nd 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 Wheeler
Even with 67.8% of Wheeler 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Wheeler's 30,885-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Wheeler, see the exposure-zones guide.