Maxwell, IA
Maxwell wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Maxwell lands at the 27th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 584 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Maxwell at the 27th national percentile — 0 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 67.3% of Maxwell's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 32.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Maxwell against the rest of the country
Maxwell's risk sits at a similar level relative to Iowa (42nd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (27th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Maxwell ranks 22,907 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,045 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 594 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
Maxwell's moderate wildfire rating (27th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 67.3% of Maxwell 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 Maxwell's 22,907-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Maxwell, see the exposure-zones guide.