Bellingham, MN
How exposed is Bellingham to wildfire?
Bellingham sits at the 14th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 202 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bellingham at the 8th national percentile — 6 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Bellingham's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 66.3% of Bellingham's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 33.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
How Bellingham compares
There's little gap between Bellingham's 14th national percentile and its 18th percentile inside Minnesota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bellingham ranks 27,167 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,766 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 749 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bellingham
At the 14th national percentile, Bellingham rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 66.3% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Bellingham gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 202 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bellingham. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Bellingham, see the exposure-zones guide.