Chelsea, IA
Chelsea, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Chelsea at the 84th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 221 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 Chelsea at the 85th percentile, close to its 84th-percentile risk score.
Chelsea's building exposure, zone by zone
221 buildings are counted in Chelsea, and 53.4% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
Where Chelsea ranks
Within Iowa, Chelsea ranks higher (100th percentile) than it does nationally (84th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chelsea ranks 4,980 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,076 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 4 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
Chelsea's very high rating (84th 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.
Hardening a home in Chelsea
Chelsea's 53.4% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Chelsea's figures come from
Chelsea's 84th-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 Chelsea's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.