Northrop, MN
How exposed is Northrop to wildfire?
USFS scores Northrop at the 3rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 157 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Northrop at the 3rd national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Northrop rates 90.5% Minimal exposure against just 9.6% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 157 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Northrop against the rest of the country
Northrop's risk sits at a similar level relative to Minnesota (5th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (3rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Northrop ranks 30,456 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,569 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 867 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Northrop and the insurance market
Northrop's low wildfire rating (3rd 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 90.5% of Northrop 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.
Where Northrop's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Northrop's 30,456-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Northrop's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.