Donnellson, IA
Donnellson wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Donnellson at the 46th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 644 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Donnellson at the 47th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Donnellson's buildings actually sit
Most of Donnellson's buildings (50% of 644) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Donnellson ranks
Compare Donnellson's two percentiles: 63rd within Iowa, only 46th nationally — a gap of 17 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Donnellson ranks 17,044 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,274 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 382 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Donnellson and the insurance market
Donnellson's elevated wildfire rating (46th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 50% of Donnellson 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.
More on how this number was built
Donnellson's 46th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Donnellson, see the exposure-zones guide.