Irene, SD
How exposed is Irene to wildfire?
Irene's 309 buildings earn a 52nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Irene at the 51st national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Irene rates 82.2% Minimal exposure against just 17.8% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 309 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Irene against the rest of the country
Inside South Dakota, Irene sits at just the 33rd percentile even though it scores 52nd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Irene ranks 15,082 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,406 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 293 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
Irene's elevated wildfire rating (52nd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Irene's 82.2% 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 Irene's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Irene's 15,082-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Irene's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.