Wakpala, SD
Wakpala, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Wakpala's 91 buildings earn a 78th-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.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wakpala at the 77th percentile, close to its 78th-percentile risk score.
Wakpala's building exposure, zone by zone
56% of Wakpala's 91 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 44% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Wakpala against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Wakpala's 78th national percentile and its 77th percentile inside South Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wakpala ranks 6,948 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,473 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 103 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Wakpala and the insurance market
Wakpala's 78th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Wakpala's 56% 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 Wakpala's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Wakpala's 6,948-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Wakpala's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.