Boyden, IA
Boyden, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Boyden at the 5th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 475 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Boyden at the 5th percentile, close to its 5th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 82.3% of Boyden's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 17.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Boyden ranks
Boyden's risk sits at a similar level relative to Iowa (12th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (5th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Boyden ranks 29,881 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,798 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 897 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
Boyden's low rating (5th 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
Boyden'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.
Where Boyden's figures come from
Boyden's 5th-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 Boyden's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.