Ely, MN
Ely, MN's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Ely at the 87th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 2,453 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Ely at the 84th percentile, close to its 87th-percentile risk score.
Ely's building exposure, zone by zone
92.4% of Ely's 2,453 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 7.1% Direct and 0.5% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Ely compares
Ely's risk sits at a similar level relative to Minnesota (99th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (87th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ely ranks 4,166 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,387 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 11 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
Ely's 87th-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Ely (92.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Ely's 87th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Ely, see the exposure-zones guide.