North Spearfish, SD
North Spearfish, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts North Spearfish at the 82nd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 1,472 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks North Spearfish at the 82nd national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where North Spearfish's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 58.2% of North Spearfish's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 41.8% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 857 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
North Spearfish against the rest of the country
North Spearfish's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (82nd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (82nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, North Spearfish ranks 5,746 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,302 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 81 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
North Spearfish and the insurance market
North Spearfish's 82nd-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.
Hardening a home in North Spearfish
With 58.2% of North Spearfish in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
North Spearfish's 82nd-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 North Spearfish, see the exposure-zones guide.