McIntosh, SD
McIntosh wildfire risk explained
USFS scores McIntosh at the 62nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 214 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 McIntosh at the 60th percentile, close to its 62nd-percentile risk score.
Where McIntosh's buildings actually sit
Most of McIntosh's buildings (78%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How McIntosh compares
There's little gap between McIntosh's 62nd national percentile and its 51st 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, McIntosh ranks 12,053 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,346 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 214 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
McIntosh and the insurance market
McIntosh's 62nd-percentile, 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.
Hardening a home in McIntosh
Because 78% of McIntosh'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 McIntosh's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind McIntosh's 12,053-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what McIntosh's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.