Laurens, IA
How exposed is Laurens to wildfire?
Laurens's 874 buildings earn a 7th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Laurens at the 5th percentile, close to its 7th-percentile risk score.
Where Laurens's buildings actually sit
Only 8.8% of Laurens's 874 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 91.2% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Laurens against the rest of the country
Laurens's risk sits at a similar level relative to Iowa (15th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (7th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Laurens ranks 29,404 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,955 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 869 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Laurens and the insurance market
Laurens's low wildfire rating (7th 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
With 91.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Laurens gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Laurens's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Laurens's 29,404-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Laurens's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.