Volga, SD
Volga, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Volga at the 67th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 913 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 Volga at the 61st percentile, close to its 67th-percentile risk score.
Where Volga's buildings actually sit
79% of Volga's 913 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 21% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Volga ranks
Volga's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (61st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (67th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Volga ranks 10,347 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,614 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 170 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
Volga's 67th-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
Volga's 79% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 913 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Volga. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Volga, see the exposure-zones guide.