Blairstown, IA
Blairstown wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Blairstown at the 43rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 513 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Blairstown at the 44th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Blairstown's building exposure, zone by zone
Blairstown rates 94.5% Minimal exposure against just 5.5% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 513 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Blairstown ranks
Within Iowa, Blairstown ranks higher (59th percentile) than it does nationally (43rd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Blairstown ranks 17,925 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,129 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 414 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Blairstown and the insurance market
Blairstown's elevated rating (43rd 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 94.5% of Blairstown 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 Blairstown's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Blairstown's 17,925-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Blairstown's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.