Black River Falls, WI
Black River Falls wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Black River Falls at the 39th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 1,846 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Black River Falls's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 37th percentile nationally.
Where Black River Falls's buildings actually sit
Most of Black River Falls's buildings (80%) 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.
Black River Falls against the rest of the country
Compare Black River Falls's two percentiles: 90th within Wisconsin, only 39th nationally — a gap of 51 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Black River Falls ranks 19,401 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,923 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 85 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Black River Falls's moderate wildfire rating (39th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 80% of Black River Falls'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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,846 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Black River Falls. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Black River Falls, see the exposure-zones guide.