Shellsburg, IA
How exposed is Shellsburg to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Shellsburg lands at the 41st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 589 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Shellsburg at the 42nd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Shellsburg's building exposure, zone by zone
Shellsburg rates 62.5% Minimal exposure against just 29.9% Direct and 7.6% Indirect — of 589 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Shellsburg compares
Within Iowa, Shellsburg ranks higher (56th percentile) than it does nationally (41st) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shellsburg ranks 18,586 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,977 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 442 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
Shellsburg's elevated rating (41st 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 Shellsburg
With 62.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Shellsburg gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Shellsburg's figures come from
Shellsburg's 41st-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 Shellsburg's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.