Newell, SD
Newell wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Newell lands at the 84th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 567 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Newell at the 85th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Newell's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 82.7% of Newell's 567 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 17.3% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Newell compares
Newell's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (84th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (84th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Newell ranks 5,050 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,301 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 70 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Newell
Newell's 84th-percentile, very 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
Newell's 82.7% 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.
More on how this number was built
Newell's 84th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Newell, see the exposure-zones guide.