Pine Ridge, SD
Pine Ridge, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Pine Ridge's 1,056 buildings earn a 96th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Pine Ridge at the 96th percentile, close to its 96th-percentile risk score.
Where Pine Ridge's buildings actually sit
81.9% of Pine Ridge's 1,056 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 18.1% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Pine Ridge compares
There's little gap between Pine Ridge's 96th national percentile and its 99th percentile inside South Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pine Ridge ranks 1,304 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,564 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 7 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Pine Ridge's 96th-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
Because 81.9% of Pine Ridge's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Pine Ridge's figures come from
Pine Ridge's 96th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pine Ridge's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.