Pilot Mound, IA
How exposed is Pilot Mound to wildfire?
USFS scores Pilot Mound at the 26th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 161 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Pilot Mound at the 26th percentile, close to its 26th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Pilot Mound (59% of 161 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 41% sit in the Direct zone.
Pilot Mound against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Pilot Mound's 26th national percentile and its 40th percentile inside Iowa, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pilot Mound ranks 23,356 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,379 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 612 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
Pilot Mound's moderate wildfire rating (26th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Pilot Mound's 59% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Pilot Mound's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Pilot Mound's 23,356-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pilot Mound's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.