Council Bluffs, IA
Council Bluffs wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Council Bluffs at the 70th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 29,061 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Council Bluffs's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 69th percentile nationally.
Council Bluffs's building exposure, zone by zone
87.2% of Council Bluffs's 29,061 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 10.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 29,061 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Council Bluffs ranks
Council Bluffs'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, Council Bluffs ranks 9,385 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 404 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 66 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Council Bluffs
Council Bluffs's high rating (70th 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 Council Bluffs
Even with 87.2% of Council Bluffs outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Council Bluffs's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 29,061 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Council Bluffs. The exposure-zones guide covers what Council Bluffs's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.