Gaylord, MN
Gaylord wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Gaylord lands at the 6th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 1,134 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 Gaylord at the 5th percentile, close to its 6th-percentile risk score.
Gaylord's building exposure, zone by zone
93.8% of Gaylord's 1,134 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 6.2% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Gaylord against the rest of the country
Gaylord scores 6th nationally and 10th within Minnesota — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gaylord ranks 29,569 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,049 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 827 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 6th national percentile, Gaylord rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Gaylord's 93.8% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Gaylord's figures come from
Gaylord's 6th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Gaylord's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.