Oto, IA
How exposed is Oto to wildfire?
USFS scores Oto at the 83rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 113 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Oto's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 83rd percentile nationally.
Oto's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 42.5% of Oto's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 19.5% Direct and 38.1% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Oto against the rest of the country
Oto's 100th-percentile standing inside Iowa outpaces its 83rd national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Oto ranks 5,324 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,501 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 6 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
Oto's 83rd-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Hardening a home in Oto
With 42.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Oto 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 113 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Oto. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Oto, see the exposure-zones guide.