Vergas, MN
How exposed is Vergas to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Vergas at the 55th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 341 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Vergas at the 57th percentile, close to its 55th-percentile risk score.
Where Vergas's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 60.1% of Vergas's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 38.4% Indirect share and far above its 1.5% Minimal share — a profile where 205 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Vergas against the rest of the country
Vergas's 81st-percentile standing inside Minnesota outpaces its 55th 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, Vergas ranks 14,119 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,553 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 178 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Vergas's elevated wildfire rating (55th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Vergas's 60.1% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Vergas's 55th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Vergas, see the exposure-zones guide.