Lucas, IA
Lucas wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Lucas at the 74th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 210 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Lucas at the 75th percentile, close to its 74th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Lucas's 210 counted buildings, 50.5% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Lucas against the rest of the country
Lucas's 97th-percentile standing inside Iowa outpaces its 74th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lucas ranks 8,353 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,477 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 34 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
At the 74th percentile nationally, Lucas carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
With 50.5% of Lucas in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 210 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Lucas. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Lucas, see the exposure-zones guide.