Sunset Colony, SD
How exposed is Sunset Colony to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Sunset Colony lands at the 65th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 62 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 Sunset Colony at the 63rd percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 75.8% of Sunset Colony's 62 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 24.2% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Sunset Colony ranks
Sunset Colony scores 65th nationally and 57th 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, Sunset Colony ranks 11,074 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,600 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 190 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Sunset Colony and the insurance market
Sunset Colony's high rating (65th 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.
Hardening a home in Sunset Colony
Sunset Colony's 75.8% 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 Sunset Colony's figures come from
Sunset Colony's 65th-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 Sunset Colony's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.