Grundy Center, IA
How exposed is Grundy Center to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Grundy Center at the 20th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 1,598 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Grundy Center's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 19th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Grundy Center's buildings (94.8% of 1,598) 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 Grundy Center ranks
There's little gap between Grundy Center's 20th national percentile and its 33rd percentile inside Iowa, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Grundy Center ranks 25,239 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,774 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 687 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Grundy Center and the insurance market
Grundy Center's low rating (20th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Grundy Center's 94.8% 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 Grundy Center's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Grundy Center's 25,239-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Grundy Center's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.