Rickardsville, IA
Rickardsville wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Rickardsville at the 16th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 124 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 Rickardsville at the 17th percentile, close to its 16th-percentile risk score.
Rickardsville's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Rickardsville's 124 counted buildings, 68.6% carry Direct exposure and only 19.4% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Rickardsville ranks
Rickardsville scores 16th nationally and 27th within Iowa — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Rickardsville ranks 26,437 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,983 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 750 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Rickardsville and the insurance market
At the 16th national percentile, Rickardsville rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 68.6% of Rickardsville in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Rickardsville's figures come from
Rickardsville's 16th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Rickardsville's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.