Rake, IA
How exposed is Rake to wildfire?
USFS scores Rake at the 5th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 191 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 Rake at the 4th percentile, close to its 5th-percentile risk score.
Where Rake's buildings actually sit
Most of Rake's buildings (85.3% of 191) 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.
How Rake compares
There's little gap between Rake's 5th national percentile and its 12th percentile inside Iowa, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Rake ranks 29,909 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,198 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 901 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Rake and the insurance market
Rake's low rating (5th 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
Even with 85.3% of Rake outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Rake's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 191 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Rake. The exposure-zones guide covers what Rake's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.