Lake Benton, MN
Lake Benton, MN's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Lake Benton at the 56th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 542 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Lake Benton at the 50th percentile, close to its 56th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
542 buildings are counted in Lake Benton, and 61.1% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 38% in Direct exposure or the 0.9% rated Minimal.
Lake Benton against the rest of the country
Lake Benton's 82nd-percentile standing inside Minnesota outpaces its 56th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lake Benton ranks 13,837 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,684 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 163 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Lake Benton and the insurance market
Lake Benton's elevated rating (56th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 61.1% of Lake Benton'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 Lake Benton's figures come from
Lake Benton's 56th-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 Lake Benton's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.