Buffalo Center, IA
Buffalo Center wildfire risk explained
Buffalo Center sits at the 1st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 666 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Buffalo Center at the 1st percentile, close to its 1st-percentile risk score.
Where Buffalo Center's buildings actually sit
87.2% of Buffalo Center's 666 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 12.8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Buffalo Center compares
Buffalo Center scores 1st nationally and 2nd within Iowa — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Buffalo Center ranks 31,079 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,997 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 1,002 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Buffalo Center and the insurance market
Buffalo Center's low rating (1st 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
Buffalo Center's 87.2% 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 Buffalo Center's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Buffalo Center's 31,079-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Buffalo Center's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.