Hastings, IA
Hastings wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Hastings at the 42nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 132 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Hastings at the 40th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Hastings's buildings actually sit
Only 18.2% of Hastings's 132 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 81.8% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Hastings ranks
Within Iowa, Hastings ranks higher (58th percentile) than it does nationally (42nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hastings ranks 18,146 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,619 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 424 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Hastings and the insurance market
At the 42nd national percentile, Hastings rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Hastings
Even with 81.8% of Hastings outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hastings's 18,146-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Hastings, see the exposure-zones guide.