Barnum, IA
Barnum wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Barnum at the 9th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 118 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Barnum at the 6th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 83.1% of Barnum's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 17% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Barnum against the rest of the country
Barnum scores 9th nationally and 19th within Iowa — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Barnum ranks 28,610 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,238 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 827 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Barnum
At the 9th national percentile, Barnum rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 83.1% of Barnum 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 Barnum's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Barnum's 28,610-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Barnum's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.