Fertile, IA
Fertile, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Fertile sits at the 26th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 277 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Fertile's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 25th percentile nationally.
Where Fertile's buildings actually sit
Most of Fertile's buildings (59.6% of 277) 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 Fertile compares
There's little gap between Fertile's 26th national percentile and its 40th percentile inside Iowa, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fertile ranks 23,353 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,291 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 609 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Fertile's moderate rating (26th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Fertile
Fertile's 59.6% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Fertile's figures come from
Fertile's 26th-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 Fertile's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.