Soudan, MN
Soudan wildfire risk explained
Soudan sits at the 78th 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 444 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Soudan at the 72nd national percentile — 6 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
444 buildings are counted in Soudan, and 68.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 31.8% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Soudan ranks
Compare Soudan's two percentiles: 97th within Minnesota, only 78th nationally — a gap of 19 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Soudan ranks 6,998 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,381 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 29 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Soudan
Soudan's 78th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Soudan's 68.2% 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.
More on how this number was built
Soudan's 78th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Soudan, see the exposure-zones guide.