Mediapolis, IA
Mediapolis, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Mediapolis at the 45th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 946 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Mediapolis's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 46th percentile nationally.
Where Mediapolis's buildings actually sit
Mediapolis rates 80.9% Minimal exposure against just 4.2% Direct and 14.9% Indirect — of 946 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Mediapolis ranks
Compare Mediapolis's two percentiles: 62nd within Iowa, only 45th nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mediapolis ranks 17,296 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,329 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 391 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Mediapolis and the insurance market
Mediapolis's elevated wildfire rating (45th 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
With 80.9% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Mediapolis gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Mediapolis's figures come from
Mediapolis's 45th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Mediapolis's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.