Searles, MN
How exposed is Searles to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Searles at the 12th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 138 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 Searles at the 11th percentile, close to its 12th-percentile risk score.
Searles's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Searles's buildings (74.6% of 138) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
How Searles compares
There's little gap between Searles's 12th national percentile and its 16th percentile inside Minnesota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Searles ranks 27,646 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,367 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 765 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Searles
Searles's low rating (12th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Searles
Searles's 74.6% 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 Searles's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 138 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Searles. The exposure-zones guide covers what Searles's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.