Carbon, IA
Carbon wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Carbon at the 66th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 61 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Carbon's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 67th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
61 buildings are counted in Carbon, and 63.9% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 36.1% rated Minimal.
Carbon against the rest of the country
Compare Carbon's two percentiles: 89th within Iowa, only 66th nationally — a gap of 24 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Carbon ranks 10,809 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,615 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 111 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Carbon and the insurance market
Carbon's high rating (66th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With 63.9% of Carbon in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Carbon's figures come from
Carbon's 66th-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 Carbon's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.