Chariton, IA
Chariton, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Chariton sits at the 70th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 2,592 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Chariton at the 71st national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Chariton's building exposure, zone by zone
80.8% of Chariton's 2,592 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 19.2% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Chariton ranks
Chariton's 93rd-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, Chariton ranks 9,545 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,118 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 68 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Chariton and the insurance market
Chariton's 70th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 80.8% of Chariton's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,592 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Chariton. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Chariton, see the exposure-zones guide.