Butte des Morts, WI
Butte des Morts, WI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Butte des Morts at the 27th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 693 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Butte des Morts's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 28th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Butte des Morts's buildings (75.2% of 693) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Butte des Morts ranks
Butte des Morts's 56th-percentile standing inside Wisconsin outpaces its 27th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Butte des Morts ranks 22,930 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,744 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 357 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Butte des Morts and the insurance market
Butte des Morts's moderate wildfire rating (27th 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.
Hardening a home in Butte des Morts
Even with 75.2% of Butte des Morts 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.
Where Butte des Morts's figures come from
Butte des Morts's 27th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Butte des Morts's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.