Kimball, SD
How exposed is Kimball to wildfire?
USFS scores Kimball at the 62nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 578 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Kimball at the 61st percentile, close to its 62nd-percentile risk score.
Where Kimball's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 39.5% of Kimball's 578 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 36% Direct and 24.6% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Kimball compares
There's little gap between Kimball's 62nd national percentile and its 52nd 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, Kimball ranks 12,012 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,137 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 213 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
At the 62nd percentile nationally, Kimball carries the 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
Kimball's 39.5% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Kimball's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Kimball's 12,012-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Kimball's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.