Baxter, IA
Baxter wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Baxter at the 48th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 625 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Baxter at the 50th percentile, close to its 48th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 91.8% of Baxter's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 8.2% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Baxter ranks
Baxter's 67th-percentile standing inside Iowa outpaces its 48th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Baxter ranks 16,287 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,503 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 337 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
At the 48th national percentile, Baxter rates elevated 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
Baxter's 91.8% 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 Baxter's figures come from
Baxter's 48th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Baxter's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.