Carthage, SD
Carthage, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Carthage sits at the 51st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 241 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 Carthage at the 50th percentile, close to its 51st-percentile risk score.
Carthage's building exposure, zone by zone
Carthage rates 68.5% Minimal exposure against just 31.5% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 241 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Carthage against the rest of the country
Carthage's 51st national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 32nd ranking inside South Dakota does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 19 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Carthage ranks 15,429 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,445 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 299 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Carthage
Carthage's elevated wildfire rating (51st 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
Carthage's 68.5% 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 Carthage's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Carthage's 15,429-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Carthage's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.