Blunt, SD
Blunt wildfire risk explained
Blunt sits at the 78th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 338 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Blunt's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 73rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Blunt's buildings (83.1%) 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 Blunt compares
There's little gap between Blunt's 78th national percentile and its 77th percentile inside South Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Blunt ranks 6,908 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,646 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 102 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Blunt
Blunt's 78th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Blunt's 83.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Blunt's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 338 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Blunt. The exposure-zones guide covers what Blunt's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.