Sherman, SD
Sherman wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Sherman lands at the 18th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 90 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Sherman at the 16th percentile, close to its 18th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 38.9% of Sherman's 90 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 61.1% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Sherman against the rest of the country
Sherman's 18th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 1st ranking inside South Dakota does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 17 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sherman ranks 25,763 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,512 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 435 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
Sherman's low wildfire rating (18th 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 Sherman
With 61.1% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Sherman gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Sherman's 18th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Sherman, see the exposure-zones guide.