Fruitdale, SD
How exposed is Fruitdale to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Fruitdale at the 71st national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 63 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 Fruitdale at the 70th percentile, close to its 71st-percentile risk score.
Where Fruitdale's buildings actually sit
Most of Fruitdale's buildings (66.7%) 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.
Fruitdale against the rest of the country
Fruitdale scores 71st nationally and 66th within South Dakota — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fruitdale ranks 9,273 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,559 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 148 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 71st percentile nationally, Fruitdale 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 66.7% of Fruitdale's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Fruitdale's 71st-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 Fruitdale, see the exposure-zones guide.