St. Onge, SD
How exposed is St. Onge to wildfire?
St. Onge sits at the 87th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 162 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts St. Onge at the 87th percentile, close to its 87th-percentile risk score.
St. Onge's building exposure, zone by zone
63% of St. Onge's 162 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 37% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where St. Onge ranks
St. Onge scores 87th nationally and 87th within South Dakota — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Onge ranks 4,258 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,355 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 57 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
St. Onge's very high rating (87th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 63% of St. Onge's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind St. Onge's 4,258-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond St. Onge, see the exposure-zones guide.