Pepin, WI
How exposed is Pepin to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Pepin lands at the 22nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 615 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Pepin at the 23rd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Pepin's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 82.9% of Pepin's 615 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 16.8% Direct and 0.3% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Pepin against the rest of the country
Pepin's 38th-percentile standing inside Wisconsin outpaces its 22nd 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, Pepin ranks 24,602 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,637 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 505 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Pepin and the insurance market
Pepin's moderate rating (22nd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Pepin's 82.9% 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.
Where Pepin's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Pepin's 24,602-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pepin's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.