Sheyenne, ND
How exposed is Sheyenne to wildfire?
Sheyenne sits at the 72nd 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 238 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Sheyenne at the 71st national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Sheyenne's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 81.1% of Sheyenne's 238 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 18.9% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Sheyenne against the rest of the country
Within North Dakota, Sheyenne ranks higher (88th percentile) than it does nationally (72nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sheyenne ranks 8,984 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,539 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Dakota alone, it ranks 48 of 402 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Dakota on its state page.
Sheyenne and the insurance market
Sheyenne's 72nd-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Hardening a home in Sheyenne
Sheyenne's 81.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Sheyenne's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 238 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Sheyenne. The exposure-zones guide covers what Sheyenne's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.