Cathay, ND
Cathay wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Cathay at the 44th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 63 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Cathay's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 44th percentile nationally.
Cathay's building exposure, zone by zone
55.6% of Cathay's 63 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 44.4% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Cathay ranks
There's little gap between Cathay's 44th national percentile and its 35th percentile inside North Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cathay ranks 17,622 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,552 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Dakota alone, it ranks 259 of 402 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Dakota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Cathay's elevated wildfire rating (44th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Cathay's 55.6% 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.
More on how this number was built
Cathay's 44th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Cathay, see the exposure-zones guide.