Pelican Rapids, MN
How exposed is Pelican Rapids to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Pelican Rapids at the 59th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,088 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Pelican Rapids at the 55th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Pelican Rapids's building exposure, zone by zone
56.4% of Pelican Rapids's 1,088 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 34.6% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Pelican Rapids against the rest of the country
Pelican Rapids's 85th-percentile standing inside Minnesota outpaces its 59th 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, Pelican Rapids ranks 13,017 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,350 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 138 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Pelican Rapids and the insurance market
Pelican Rapids's elevated rating (59th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Pelican Rapids
Even with 56.4% of Pelican Rapids 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 Pelican Rapids's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Pelican Rapids's 13,017-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pelican Rapids's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.