Chaska, MN
Chaska wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Chaska at the 42nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 8,346 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Chaska's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 40th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
73% of Chaska's 8,346 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 18% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 8,346 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Chaska ranks
Within Minnesota, Chaska ranks higher (58th percentile) than it does nationally (42nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chaska ranks 18,405 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,993 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 387 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Chaska's elevated rating (42nd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 73% of Chaska 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Chaska's 18,405-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Chaska, see the exposure-zones guide.