Bird Island, MN
How exposed is Bird Island to wildfire?
Bird Island sits at the 2nd 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 774 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bird Island's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 2nd percentile nationally.
Where Bird Island's buildings actually sit
Only 8.4% of Bird Island's 774 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 91.6% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Bird Island against the rest of the country
Bird Island scores 2nd nationally and 3rd within Minnesota — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bird Island ranks 30,801 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,881 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 889 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Bird Island and the insurance market
Bird Island'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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 91.6% of Bird Island 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 774 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bird Island. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Bird Island, see the exposure-zones guide.