Ponemah, MN
Ponemah wildfire risk explained
Ponemah sits at the 71st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 248 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ponemah's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 71st percentile nationally.
Where Ponemah's buildings actually sit
86.7% of Ponemah's 248 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 215 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 12.5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0.8% are Minimal.
Ponemah against the rest of the country
Within Minnesota, Ponemah ranks higher (94th percentile) than it does nationally (71st) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ponemah ranks 9,229 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,207 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 55 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
Ponemah's high rating (71st percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Ponemah
With 86.7% of Ponemah in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Ponemah's 71st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Ponemah, see the exposure-zones guide.