Fort Thompson, SD
Fort Thompson, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Fort Thompson at the 86th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 482 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 Fort Thompson at the 83rd percentile, close to its 86th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Fort Thompson's 482 counted buildings, 45.2% carry Direct exposure and only 10% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Fort Thompson against the rest of the country
Fort Thompson's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (87th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (86th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fort Thompson ranks 4,391 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,678 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 60 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Fort Thompson and the insurance market
At the 86th percentile nationally, Fort Thompson carries the very 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Fort Thompson (45.2%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Fort Thompson's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Fort Thompson's 4,391-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Fort Thompson's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.