Williston, ND
Williston wildfire risk explained
Williston's 11,362 buildings earn a 73rd-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 Williston at the 71st percentile, close to its 73rd-percentile risk score.
Williston's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Williston's buildings (67.4%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 11,362 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Williston ranks
Compare Williston's two percentiles: 90th within North Dakota, only 73rd nationally — a gap of 17 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Williston ranks 8,385 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,392 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Dakota alone, it ranks 40 of 402 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Williston
At the 73rd percentile nationally, Williston carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 67.4% of Williston'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.
Where Williston's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 11,362 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Williston. The exposure-zones guide covers what Williston's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.