Zoar, WI
Zoar wildfire risk explained
Zoar's 42 buildings earn a 26th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Zoar at the 27th percentile, close to its 26th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
100% of Zoar's 42 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 42 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Zoar compares
Zoar's 51st-percentile standing inside Wisconsin outpaces its 26th 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, Zoar ranks 23,467 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,130 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 398 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Zoar and the insurance market
Zoar's moderate wildfire rating (26th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Zoar (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Zoar's 26th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Zoar, see the exposure-zones guide.