Battle Creek, IA
How exposed is Battle Creek to wildfire?
Battle Creek sits at the 36th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 476 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Battle Creek at the 32nd national percentile — 4 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
85.7% of Battle Creek's 476 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 14.3% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Battle Creek compares
Within Iowa, Battle Creek ranks higher (51st percentile) than it does nationally (36th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Battle Creek ranks 20,164 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,779 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 497 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
Battle Creek's moderate rating (36th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Battle Creek's 85.7% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Battle Creek's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Battle Creek's 20,164-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Battle Creek's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.