Middletown, IA
How exposed is Middletown to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Middletown at the 52nd national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 264 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Middletown at the 55th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Middletown's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 73.9% of Middletown's 264 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 26.1% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Middletown against the rest of the country
Within Iowa, Middletown ranks higher (72nd percentile) than it does nationally (52nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Middletown ranks 14,994 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,697 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 285 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Middletown
At the 52nd national percentile, Middletown rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 73.9% of Middletown's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Middletown's figures come from
Middletown's 52nd-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 Middletown's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.