Colwell, IA
How exposed is Colwell to wildfire?
Colwell's 78 buildings earn a 15th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Colwell at the 13th percentile, close to its 15th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 5.1% of Colwell's 78 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 94.9% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Colwell against the rest of the country
Colwell scores 15th nationally and 25th 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, Colwell ranks 26,721 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,961 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 761 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
Colwell's low wildfire rating (15th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Colwell
Colwell's 94.9% 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 Colwell's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 78 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Colwell. The exposure-zones guide covers what Colwell's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.