Belle Plaine, MN
Belle Plaine, MN's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Belle Plaine at the 32nd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 2,900 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Belle Plaine at the 31st national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Belle Plaine's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 60.1% of Belle Plaine's 2,900 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 17.5% Direct and 22.3% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Belle Plaine ranks
Belle Plaine's risk sits at a similar level relative to Minnesota (39th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (32nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Belle Plaine ranks 21,367 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,582 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 559 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Belle Plaine and the insurance market
Belle Plaine's moderate wildfire rating (32nd 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 Belle Plaine
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Belle Plaine (60.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Belle Plaine's 32nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Belle Plaine, see the exposure-zones guide.