Iron Junction, MN
Iron Junction wildfire risk explained
Iron Junction's 110 buildings earn a 42nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Iron Junction at the 41st national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 100% of Iron Junction's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 110 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Iron Junction compares
Within Minnesota, Iron Junction ranks higher (59th 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, Iron Junction ranks 18,215 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,623 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 378 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Iron Junction and the insurance market
Iron Junction's elevated wildfire rating (42nd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Iron Junction's 100% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 110 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Iron Junction. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Iron Junction, see the exposure-zones guide.