Newell, IA
How exposed is Newell to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Newell at the 6th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 611 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Newell at the 5th percentile, close to its 6th-percentile risk score.
Where Newell's buildings actually sit
89.5% of Newell's 611 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 10.5% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Newell ranks
Newell's risk sits at a similar level relative to Iowa (12th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (6th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Newell ranks 29,781 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,679 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 894 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
At the 6th national percentile, Newell rates low 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
With 89.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Newell 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 Newell's 29,781-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Newell, see the exposure-zones guide.