Dakota City, IA
How exposed is Dakota City to wildfire?
Dakota City's 536 buildings earn a 17th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Dakota City's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 15th percentile nationally.
Dakota City's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Dakota City (75% of 536 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 24.4% sit in the Direct zone.
Dakota City against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Dakota City's 17th national percentile and its 27th percentile inside Iowa, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Dakota City ranks 26,216 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,776 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 740 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Dakota City and the insurance market
Dakota City's low wildfire rating (17th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 75% of Dakota City'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.
Where Dakota City's figures come from
Dakota City's 17th-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 Dakota City's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.