Staples, MN
Staples wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Staples lands at the 66th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,745 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Staples at the 63rd national percentile — 3 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
74.5% of Staples's 1,745 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 23.2% Direct and 2.3% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Staples compares
Staples's 91st-percentile standing inside Minnesota outpaces its 66th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Staples ranks 10,748 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,245 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 86 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Staples and the insurance market
Staples's high rating (66th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 74.5% of Staples'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.
Where Staples's figures come from
Staples's 66th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Staples's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.