Des Lacs, ND
Des Lacs, ND's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Des Lacs at the 38th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 180 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Des Lacs at the 36th percentile, close to its 38th-percentile risk score.
Des Lacs's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Des Lacs's buildings (69.4%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Des Lacs ranks
Des Lacs's 38th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 21st ranking inside North Dakota does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 17 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Des Lacs ranks 19,514 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,642 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Dakota alone, it ranks 318 of 402 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Des Lacs
Des Lacs's moderate wildfire rating (38th 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
Des Lacs's 69.4% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 180 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Des Lacs. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Des Lacs, see the exposure-zones guide.