Madison, SD
Madison wildfire risk explained
Madison's 3,314 buildings earn a 41st-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.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Madison at the 38th percentile, close to its 41st-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 14.1% of Madison's 3,314 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 85.9% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Madison ranks
Madison's 41st national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 15th ranking inside South Dakota does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 26 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Madison ranks 18,483 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,027 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 372 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
Madison's elevated wildfire rating (41st 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
Even with 85.9% of Madison outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,314 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Madison. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Madison, see the exposure-zones guide.