Avon, SD
Avon wildfire risk explained
Avon's 485 buildings earn a 65th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Avon at the 61st percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
Avon's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Avon's buildings (72.8%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Avon compares
Avon's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (57th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (65th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Avon ranks 11,037 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,622 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 189 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Avon and the insurance market
Avon's 65th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 72.8% of Avon's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Avon's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 485 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Avon. The exposure-zones guide covers what Avon's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.