Towner, ND
Towner, ND's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Towner's 521 buildings earn a 75th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Towner at the 70th national percentile — 5 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Towner's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 77.2% of Towner's 521 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 22.8% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Towner against the rest of the country
Towner's 91st-percentile standing inside North Dakota outpaces its 75th 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, Towner ranks 7,884 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,013 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Dakota alone, it ranks 37 of 402 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Dakota on its state page.
Towner and the insurance market
Towner's 75th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Towner's 77.2% 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.
Where Towner's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 521 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Towner. The exposure-zones guide covers what Towner's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.