Hill City, SD
How exposed is Hill City to wildfire?
Hill City's 629 buildings earn a 90th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Hill City at the 90th percentile, close to its 90th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
629 buildings are counted in Hill City, and 52.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 47.9% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Hill City against the rest of the country
Hill City's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (94th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (90th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hill City ranks 3,158 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,462 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 27 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Hill City and the insurance market
At the 90th percentile nationally, Hill City 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Hill City (52.2% 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 Hill City's 3,158-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Hill City, see the exposure-zones guide.