Herreid, SD
Herreid wildfire risk explained
Herreid sits at the 75th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 468 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Herreid at the 69th national percentile — 6 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Herreid's buildings actually sit
Most of Herreid's buildings (80.3%) 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 Herreid ranks
There's little gap between Herreid's 75th national percentile and its 73rd percentile inside South Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Herreid ranks 7,986 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,928 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 121 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Herreid
Herreid's 75th-percentile, 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
Because 80.3% of Herreid'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.
Where Herreid's figures come from
Herreid's 75th-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 Herreid's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.