Fairburn, SD
Fairburn, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Fairburn lands at the 96th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 84 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Fairburn at the 96th percentile, close to its 96th-percentile risk score.
Where Fairburn's buildings actually sit
Of Fairburn's 84 counted buildings, 65.5% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Fairburn ranks
Fairburn's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (98th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (96th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fairburn ranks 1,364 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,744 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 8 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Fairburn and the insurance market
Fairburn's 96th-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 65.5% of Fairburn 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.
Where Fairburn's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Fairburn's 1,364-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Fairburn's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.