Ridgeway, IA
Ridgeway wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Ridgeway lands at the 18th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 245 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ridgeway's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 18th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
95.1% of Ridgeway's 245 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 4.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Ridgeway compares
There's little gap between Ridgeway's 18th national percentile and its 29th percentile inside Iowa, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ridgeway ranks 25,869 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,293 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 721 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Ridgeway and the insurance market
Ridgeway's low rating (18th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Ridgeway
With 95.1% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Ridgeway gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Ridgeway's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ridgeway's 25,869-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ridgeway's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.