Karlstad, MN
How exposed is Karlstad to wildfire?
Karlstad sits at the 98th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 559 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Karlstad at the 98th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Karlstad's building exposure, zone by zone
50.3% of Karlstad's 559 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 281 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 49.7% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Karlstad ranks
There's little gap between Karlstad's 98th national percentile and its 100th percentile inside Minnesota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Karlstad ranks 605 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,422 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 1 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
Karlstad's 98th-percentile, very 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
Karlstad's 50.3% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Karlstad's 98th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Karlstad, see the exposure-zones guide.