Centerville, IA
Centerville wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Centerville at the 70th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 3,238 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Centerville at the 72nd 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 Centerville's buildings (62.6%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Centerville against the rest of the country
Centerville's 94th-percentile standing inside Iowa outpaces its 70th 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, Centerville ranks 9,358 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,120 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 64 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Centerville
At the 70th percentile nationally, Centerville carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Centerville (62.6% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,238 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Centerville. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Centerville, see the exposure-zones guide.