Sheffield, IA
Sheffield wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Sheffield lands at the 8th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 800 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Sheffield at the 7th percentile, close to its 8th-percentile risk score.
Sheffield's building exposure, zone by zone
86.9% of Sheffield's 800 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 13.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Sheffield against the rest of the country
Sheffield's risk sits at a similar level relative to Iowa (17th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (8th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sheffield ranks 28,933 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,632 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 848 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
Sheffield's low wildfire rating (8th 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.
Hardening a home in Sheffield
Even with 86.9% of Sheffield 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.
More on how this number was built
Sheffield's 8th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Sheffield, see the exposure-zones guide.