Hecla, SD
How exposed is Hecla to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Hecla lands at the 80th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 336 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Hecla at the 74th national percentile — 6 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Hecla's buildings actually sit
Most of Hecla's buildings (74.7%) 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.
Where Hecla ranks
Hecla scores 80th nationally and 79th 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, Hecla ranks 6,408 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,687 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 95 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
Hecla's high rating (80th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Hecla (74.7% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hecla's 6,408-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Hecla, see the exposure-zones guide.