Salem, SD
Salem, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Salem at the 41st national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 896 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Salem at the 40th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Salem's buildings actually sit
81.6% of Salem's 896 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 18.4% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Salem against the rest of the country
Salem's 41st national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 14th ranking inside South Dakota does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 27 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Salem ranks 18,674 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,763 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 378 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Salem and the insurance market
Salem's elevated wildfire rating (41st 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.
Hardening a home in Salem
Salem's 81.6% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Salem's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 896 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Salem. The exposure-zones guide covers what Salem's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.