Wagner, SD
Wagner, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Wagner sits at the 52nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 896 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Wagner at the 51st national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Wagner's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 55% of Wagner's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 16.7% Direct and 28.2% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
How Wagner compares
Wagner's 52nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 33rd ranking inside South Dakota does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 19 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wagner ranks 15,108 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,764 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 294 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
At the 52nd national percentile, Wagner rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Wagner's 55% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Wagner's 15,108-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Wagner, see the exposure-zones guide.