Detroit Lakes, MN
How exposed is Detroit Lakes to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Detroit Lakes at the 74th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 5,389 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Detroit Lakes at the 70th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
42.4% of Detroit Lakes's 5,389 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 2,282 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 33.2% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 24.5% are Minimal. At 5,389 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Detroit Lakes compares
Detroit Lakes's 96th-percentile standing inside Minnesota outpaces its 74th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Detroit Lakes ranks 8,282 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,203 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 42 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
At the 74th percentile nationally, Detroit Lakes carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
With 42.4% of Detroit Lakes in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Detroit Lakes's 74th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Detroit Lakes, see the exposure-zones guide.