Algona, IA
Algona wildfire risk explained
Algona's 3,217 buildings earn a 27th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Algona at the 25th percentile, close to its 27th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Algona rates 45.7% Minimal exposure against just 13.5% Direct and 40.8% Indirect — of 3,217 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Algona ranks
Algona's risk sits at a similar level relative to Iowa (41st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (27th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Algona ranks 23,061 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,148 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 597 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Algona and the insurance market
Algona's moderate wildfire rating (27th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 45.7% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Algona gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,217 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Algona. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Algona, see the exposure-zones guide.