Pine River, MN
Pine River wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Pine River at the 45th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 554 actual buildings. (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 River at the 43rd percentile, close to its 45th-percentile risk score.
Where Pine River's buildings actually sit
554 buildings are counted in Pine River, and 73.1% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 26.9% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Pine River against the rest of the country
Compare Pine River's two percentiles: 65th within Minnesota, only 45th nationally — a gap of 20 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pine River ranks 17,395 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,518 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 325 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Pine River's elevated wildfire rating (45th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 73.1% of Pine River'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 River's figures come from
Pine River's 45th-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 River's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.