Bruce, SD
How exposed is Bruce to wildfire?
USFS scores Bruce at the 63rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 213 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bruce at the 59th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Bruce's building exposure, zone by zone
213 buildings are counted in Bruce, and 59.6% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 39.4% rated Minimal.
Bruce against the rest of the country
Bruce scores 63rd nationally and 53rd within South Dakota — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bruce ranks 11,831 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,382 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 209 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Bruce and the insurance market
Bruce's high rating (63rd percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Bruce (59.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bruce's 11,831-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Bruce, see the exposure-zones guide.