Wasta, SD
How exposed is Wasta to wildfire?
Wasta sits at the 86th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 119 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Wasta at the 86th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Wasta's building exposure, zone by zone
119 buildings are counted in Wasta, and 83.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 16.8% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Wasta ranks
Wasta's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (86th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (86th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wasta ranks 4,455 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,218 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 62 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Wasta
Wasta's very high rating (86th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Wasta
Because 83.2% of Wasta's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Wasta's 4,455-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Wasta, see the exposure-zones guide.