Merrifield, MN
Merrifield wildfire risk explained
Merrifield sits at the 63rd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 182 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Merrifield at the 59th percentile, close to its 63rd-percentile risk score.
Merrifield's building exposure, zone by zone
81.3% of Merrifield's 182 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 148 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 17% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 1.7% are Minimal.
Where Merrifield ranks
Merrifield's 89th-percentile standing inside Minnesota outpaces its 63rd 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, Merrifield ranks 11,628 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,540 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 106 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Merrifield
Merrifield's 63rd-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Merrifield's 81.3% 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
Merrifield's 63rd-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 Merrifield, see the exposure-zones guide.