Elkhart, IA
How exposed is Elkhart to wildfire?
Elkhart's 453 buildings earn a 16th-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 Elkhart at the 15th percentile, close to its 16th-percentile risk score.
Where Elkhart's buildings actually sit
Most of Elkhart's buildings (83.7% of 453) 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.
How Elkhart compares
Elkhart scores 16th nationally and 26th 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, Elkhart ranks 26,528 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,213 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 753 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Elkhart and the insurance market
Elkhart's low wildfire rating (16th 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
With 83.7% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Elkhart gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Elkhart's figures come from
Elkhart's 16th-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 Elkhart's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.