Garwin, IA
Garwin wildfire risk explained
Garwin sits at the 57th 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 400 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Garwin's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 58th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
78% of Garwin's 400 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 22% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Garwin against the rest of the country
Compare Garwin's two percentiles: 78th within Iowa, only 57th nationally — a gap of 21 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Garwin ranks 13,611 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,207 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 223 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
Garwin's elevated rating (57th 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 Garwin
Garwin's 78% 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Garwin's 13,611-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Garwin, see the exposure-zones guide.