Fort Madison, IA
Fort Madison wildfire risk explained
Fort Madison sits at the 50th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 6,183 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Fort Madison's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 52nd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Fort Madison rates 83% Minimal exposure against just 3.4% Direct and 13.5% Indirect — of 6,183 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 6,183 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Fort Madison ranks
Within Iowa, Fort Madison ranks higher (69th percentile) than it does nationally (50th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fort Madison ranks 15,626 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,807 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 313 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Fort Madison and the insurance market
At the 50th national percentile, Fort Madison rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Fort Madison's 83% 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 Fort Madison's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,183 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Fort Madison. The exposure-zones guide covers what Fort Madison's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.