Beacon, IA
Beacon, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Beacon's 338 buildings earn a 55th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Beacon at the 57th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Beacon's buildings (82.3% of 338) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
How Beacon compares
Beacon's 75th-percentile standing inside Iowa outpaces its 55th 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, Beacon ranks 14,146 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,625 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 252 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Beacon and the insurance market
At the 55th national percentile, Beacon rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Beacon
Beacon's 82.3% 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.
More on how this number was built
Beacon's 55th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Beacon, see the exposure-zones guide.