Meriden, IA
How exposed is Meriden to wildfire?
Meriden sits at the 7th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 126 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Meriden at the 6th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Meriden's building exposure, zone by zone
62.7% of Meriden's 126 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 37.3% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Meriden compares
Meriden'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, Meriden ranks 29,244 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,889 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 861 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
Meriden's low rating (7th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 62.7% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Meriden gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Meriden's 29,244-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Meriden, see the exposure-zones guide.