Montrose, IA
How exposed is Montrose to wildfire?
Montrose's 466 buildings earn a 48th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Montrose at the 49th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Montrose's buildings actually sit
Most of Montrose's buildings (69.7% of 466) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Montrose against the rest of the country
Within Iowa, Montrose ranks higher (66th percentile) than it does nationally (48th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Montrose ranks 16,539 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,956 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 352 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Montrose and the insurance market
Montrose's elevated rating (48th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Montrose's 69.7% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Montrose's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Montrose's 16,539-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Montrose's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.