De Soto, IA
De Soto, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
De Soto's 528 buildings earn a 62nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks De Soto at the 63rd national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in De Soto (47.7% of 528 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 13.3% sit in the Direct zone.
How De Soto compares
Compare De Soto's two percentiles: 85th within Iowa, only 62nd nationally — a gap of 23 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, De Soto ranks 12,129 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,892 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 154 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
De Soto and the insurance market
De Soto's 62nd-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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in De Soto (47.7% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind De Soto's 12,129-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond De Soto, see the exposure-zones guide.