Avoca, IA
Avoca, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Avoca lands at the 45th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 987 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Avoca at the 45th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Avoca's buildings actually sit
Avoca rates 84.6% Minimal exposure against just 15.4% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 987 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Avoca against the rest of the country
Compare Avoca's two percentiles: 62nd within Iowa, only 45th nationally — a gap of 17 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Avoca ranks 17,199 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,026 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 386 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Avoca's elevated rating (45th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 84.6% of Avoca outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Avoca's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Avoca's 17,199-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Avoca's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.