Butterfield, MN
Butterfield wildfire risk explained
Butterfield sits at the 4th 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 353 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Butterfield at the 3rd percentile, close to its 4th-percentile risk score.
Where Butterfield's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 70.8% of Butterfield's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 29.2% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
How Butterfield compares
Butterfield's risk sits at a similar level relative to Minnesota (6th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (4th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Butterfield ranks 30,326 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,234 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 860 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Butterfield
Butterfield's low rating (4th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Butterfield
Butterfield's 70.8% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Butterfield's figures come from
Butterfield's 4th-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 Butterfield's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.